He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1903-1908), painting and sculpture under Nikiforos Lytras, Georgios Roilos and Georgios Vroutos. He went on to study in Paris, first at the Academie Julian, under Raoul Verlet and Paul Maximilien Landowski, and then at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, at Jules-Felix Coutan’s workshop. In 1911, he returned to Athens and opened a studio with Nikolaos Lytras.
His exhibition activity includes group exhibitions, notably ones by the Greek Artists Association and the “Omas Techni” (Art Group) and National Art Fairs, while in 1934 he participated in the Venice Biennale.
In his work, which includes a large number of war memorials, busts, reliefs and free compositions, he combined his academic training with elements of Rodin’s sculpture, both in the dramatisation of the content, especially in war memorials, and in the fluid, impressionistic treatment; while some of his works stand out for their ornamental grace.
He first studied sculpture with Leonidas Drossis at the School of Arts (1876-1883) while also working at Dimitrios Filippotis’s workshop, and then with Antonio Allegretti and Girolamo Masini at the Rome Institute of Fine Arts; he also maintained his own workshop. In 1888, he settled in Athens, where he soon established a workshop, employing several assistants. In 1911, he was appointed professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts but immediately resigned because of disagreements with his colleagues and the Ministry of Education.
He presented his work in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including the Olympia in Athens (1888), Paris International Exhibition (1889) and Panhellenic exhibitions (1938 and 1939).
Georgios Bonanos lived during a period of transition for Modern Greek sculpture, when neoclassicist ideas survived in parallel with a trend towards realistic treatment. He employed the teachings of ancient Greek sculpture, which he considered his great model, as much as those of 19th-century neoclassicist masters, with whom he had become familiar during his studies in Rome; at the same time, he introduced a realistic style more evident in his choice of subject and less in treatment. Boasting of a broad range of subjects, he made a great number of statues, busts, funerary monuments and heroa, copies after ancient works, and non-commissioned works of free inspiration, characterized by their monumental qualities, harmony, measure, balance and assurance in composition.
His first contact with sculpture was in the workshop of his father, who was a marble sculptor. In 1903, he enrolled in the School of Arts, where he studied sculpture with Georgios Vroutos and for a short while with Lazaros Sochos. He also attended the drawing courses of Dimitrios Geraniotis, Alexandros Kalloudis and Georgios Iakovidis, while at the same time he worked at N.M. Perakis’s marble sculpture workshop. Graduating from the Athens School of Arts in 1909, he established his own studio in Athens a year later. In 1914, on scholarship from the Georgios Averoff Estate, he went to Paris, where he studied at the Academie Julian with Henri Bouchard and Paul Landowski. After his return in 1919, he was appointed visiting professor at the Department of Plastic, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens. He travelled, among other places to Olympia, where he studied the Zeus temple sculptures, and Paris. In 1925, he visited Paris for the fourth time and stayed until 1928. During this sojourn in the French capital he had a busy exhibition agenda and was also especially creative, as he first came into contact with the avant-garde. During 1933-1934, he published “20ός Αιώνας” [20th Century], the first magazine focusing on the visual arts in Greece. In 1938, he was appointed regular professor at the 2nd Workshop of Sculpture of the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he taught until 1960 and was director from 1957 to 1959. In 1967, the Academy of Athens awarded him the Excellence of Arts and the following year elected him a member.
His work was presented in Greece and international solo and major group exhibitions, among them exhibitions with the “Omada Techni” [Art Group], the Salon des Artistes Francais, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Independants in Paris, the 1937 Paris International Exhibition, the Biennale of Venice in 1934, 1938 and 1956, and the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1955. In 1959, a retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted at the American Information Service premises and at the Hellenic American Union in 1972.
Michalis Tombros had a major contribution to Modern Greek sculpture. Through the publication of “20th Century” and a wealth of articles in the daily and periodical press as well as his teaching activity at the School of Fine Arts, he helped disseminate avant-garde movements in Greece. His creative career was characterized by a remarkable dualism. While always remaining anthropocentric, he created free works, particularly of female figures, mainly reflecting Aristide Maillol’s plastic style, and commissioned works, in which he generally adopted an approved academic style. On the other hand, his desire to join the avant-garde movements led him to all kinds of experimentations. Thus, he created works in an abstract vein, with Cubist and Surrealist influences, focusing on animal and vegetable forms as well as creatures of his imagination or strange forms.
The descendant of a great family of sculptors, he initially worked as an apprentice to his father, who was a traditional architect mason. In 1858, he was admitted to the School of Arts and graduated in 1862. His professors were first Christian Siegel (1808-1883) and then Georgios Fytalis, in whose family workshop Filippotis learned marble carving while studying at the School of Arts. In 1864, having received a scholarship from the Holy Evangelistria Foundation in Tinos, he left for Rome. He studied there until 1870, first with Emil Wolff and later with Karl Voss. In 1865, he became one of the founding members of the Society of Artists in Rome, whose main objective was to help Greek students to produce their works. Returning to Greece in 1870, he settled in Athens, where he established a studio. In 1908, he received the Saviour’s Cross and in 1915 the Medal of Arts and Letters.
His work has been shown in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including the Olympia exhibition in 1875, art exhibitions in the Parnassos Hall and the offices of the Dilettanti Society in Athens, and the 1878 Paris International Exhibition; in 1870, he won first prize in the arts competition of the Academy of Rome.
A prolific artist, he was called “marmarophagus” – marble-eater – by his contemporaries. His oeuvre comprises funerary monuments, busts, mythological and genre works. His education was academic, and academic art prevailed when he returned to Greece, in 1870. However, Filippotis marks a decisive departure into realistic paths, as is evident both in his selection of subject matter and the style of his works. He never abandoned neoclassicist forms, though. Classical statuary, of which he had a deep knowledge, was his model, together with the reality surrounding him, of which he was an acute observer. From classical art he preserved the faultless technical processing of marble and the nudity of bodies; for his own compositions he sought the harmony that illuminates classical art. Yet, he came a step closer to realism, capturing inner reality and movement, with a predominantly naturalistic treatment of certain details that adds a touch of life in his works.
He studied sculpture at the School of Arts with Georgios Fytalis from 1859 until 1864. In the meanwhile, he also learned marble carving at Ioannis Kossos’s workshop. In 1866, he was awarded a scholarship from Queen Olga, which enabled him to continue his studies in Rome for three years. He studied at the Academia di Francia for six months, and then, until 1870, at the St Luca Academy, with professors Adamo Tadolini and Filipo Gnaccarini, who were Canova’s pupils. In 1870, his teacher Gnaccarini introduced him to the banker Torlonia, who assigned him to install and maintain his collection of sculptures at his villa. He continued in this appointment until 1873. Returning to Athens in the same year, he established a workshop in Plaka. In 1883, following Leonidas Drossis’s death, he was appointed professor of plastic at the School of Arts, a post he maintained throughout his life. The Averoff contests of the National Technical University in Athens are his initiative. In 1888, he was elected member of the Paris Academy of Fine Arts and from 1900 began to teach sculpture at the newly established Women’s Art School of the “Dilettante Society.”
Besides his work permanently on show at his workshop, he participated in the Olympia exhibitions (1875 and 1888), an exhibition for the benefit of the Red Cross at Vassilios Melas’s residence (1881), the Parnassos exhibition (1885), the 1888 Panhellenic exhibition, the Greek Artists Society exhibition (1907) and Paris International Exhibitions (1878 and 1889).
Whereas his studies conditioned him to full compliance to the ideals and principles of neoclassicism, evidence of adopting realistic perceptions eventually emerged in his work. Even in his early works, his desire for originality was evident, yet was put on hold, however, by negative reception. He nevertheless avoided sterile neoclassicism and progressively adopted realistic qualities, especially in the late 19th century. He became involved with all types of sculpture, including funerary monuments, busts, statues as well as mythological subjects and children’s figures in the outdoors. He also worked for the restoration of ancient statuary, and in 1898 submitted a proposal for the restoration and reconstruction of the Lion monument at Chaeronea.
At a very early age he manifested an interest in music, mathematics and drawing and in adolescence began to publish caricatures in newspapers and magazines. After two years of study at the Civil Engineering School of the National Technical School (1897-1899) and having taken drawing lessons from Nikephoros Lytras (1899), he settled in Paris in 1900, where he remained for most of his life, travelling now and then to various countries and on occasion returning to Greece. Until 1902 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris under Fernand Cormon, while from 1901 to 1912 he worked on many well-known humor magazines such as Frou-Frou, Le Rire, Le Sourire, and L’Assiette au Beurre publishing caricatures and drawings.
His systematic interest in engraving must have first expressed itself during a trip to Germany (1907-1909) and in 1918 he began to illustrate books, an activity which covered an important part of his creative activity and includes more than one hundred books, albums, diaries and art books. In 1930 he stopped painting and devoted himself almost exclusively to engraving. Having acquired French nationality, he taught at the Andre Lhote Academy (1925- 1928), gave lessons at his studio to Greek artists who were studying in Paris (1930-1937), and taught at the School of Fine Arts (1945-1952). In 1945 he was elected a member of the French Academy and in 1950 a corresponding member of the Athens Academy.
Exceptionally active in the exhibition world, both in France and other countries, his first solo show was held in Paris in 1922, and Andre Malraux wrote the preface to the catalogue. He also took part in Parisian Salons, while from 1920 to 1926 he held joint exhibitions with many of the most important artists of the period, such as Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Chagall and his close friend, Derain. In 1991 his work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art – Vasilis and Eliza Goulandris Foundation on Andros.
Dimitris Galanis was one of the most important engravers of the first half of the 20th century in Europe and the forerunner of modern Greek engraving, influencing his fellow artists both through his work and his teaching. Exceptionally skilled in all the techniques, he was the revitalizer of traditional methods of engraving. His work, which includes a variety of subjects — mythological and idyllic scenes, landscapes, nudes and still lifes – reveals influences from Cezanne in the beginning and the cubist and Fauvist movements, while later he acquired his own personal style, based on the principles of the classical tradition.
He came to Greece in 1906 where he studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1907-1912) under professors Spyros Vikatos, Dimitrios Geraniotis, Georgios Roilos and Georgios Jakovides. Having acquired an Averoff scholarship, he went to Paris in 1919 where he completed his studies at the Julian and Grande Chaumiere Academies.
During his stay in the French capital he took part in Parisian Salons and in 1926 presented his first solo show at the Gallery Vavin-Raspail. In Athens, to which he permanently returned in 1931, he held his first exhibition in 1924, while the solo show he organized in 1929 at the Stratigopoulos gallery was rebuked by the adherents of academic technique, but hailed by the younger critics. His exhibition activity continued with both solo shows and appearances in Panhellenies, the exhibitions of the Art Group and Spirit- Level and international exhibitions such as Sao Paolo in 1959 and Alexandria in 1963. In 1958, representing Greece, he received the international Guggenheim Prize and in 1975 his work was presented in a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery. Since 1979 the painter’s house has operated as the Gounaropoulos Museum, after being donated by his family for that purpose.
His artistic creation also includes illustrations of collections of poetry, wall paintings for the meeting room of the Municipal Council of the Mayor’s Office of Athens with scenes inspired by mythology and the history of the city (1937-1939) and the iconography for the chapel of the Public Hospital of Volos (1951)). Starting off in the academic tradition and then coming into contact with the teachings of impressionism and Cezanne, he ended with his own personal, surrealistic style, in which the linearly rendered figures are inspired by ancient lekythoi and are imbued with an atmosphere both dreamy and highly lyrical, where the game of light and shadow plays the primary role.
