Philolaos (Tloupas)

After finishing school, he enrolled in the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he studied with Michalis Tombros; during the same period, he frequented Thanassis Apartis’s studio. Graduating in 1950, he immediately left for Paris. He attended courses in Marcel Gimond’s studio for a while but soon moved to Chevreuse, where he became first a student and then for several years a professor at the Faculty of Ceramics.

His first solo exhibitions were held in 1964 in Nantes, Paris and Athens. Then followed personal shows in Greece and other countries as well as participations in major group and international exhibitions, such as the Paris Salon du mai, the 1965 Sao Paulo Biennale, Panhellenic exhibitions as well as the National Gallery exhibition “Metamorphoses of the Modern” in 1992.

An artist who never ceased to seek and experiment, in the late 1970’s Philolaos developed his own original technique and produced a great number of works made in cement, stainless steel and washed concrete. Particularly interested in the cultural mission of sculpture and its placement in an architectural setting, he extensively collaborated with architects. The fruit of these collaborations were monumental sculptural constructions for public sites. At the same time, he was also interested in small-scale sculpture, creating small objects, such as carved wood landscapes, fruit bowls and decorative objects of a poetic and intensely surrealist nature, as well as jewelery.