He first studied at the drawing school of a Frenchman called Guillement in Constantinople. Then, with the help of the Zarifis family, he studied at the Athens School of Arts, sculpture with Leonidas Drossis and painting with Nikiforos Lytras. In 1881, with the financial support of Therese Zarifis, he went to Paris, where he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and worked with the sculptor Marius Jean Antonin Mercie. In 1897, he fought in the Greek-Turkish War in a volunteer corps. In 1901, he returned to Greece in order to erect the statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in Nafplio, the model for which he had prepared at Mercie’s workshop, in 1891-1895. The work was shown in the 1900 Paris International Exhibition, where it won the gold medal; it was also awarded by the Academy of Rome. In 1904, a second copy was set up in Athens. In 1908, Sochos was appointed professor of sculpture at the School of Arts. He collaborated with the Archaeological Agency and participated in the restoration of the Lion monument at Chaeronea and the reconstruction of the Olympia sculptures. He was founding member of the Society of Greek Artists and member of several art committees.

His work was presented at the 1888 Olympia exhibition in Athens, the 1900 Paris International Exhibition, the exhibitions of the Society of Greek Artists (1907-1910) and the Rome International Exhibition (1911).

Lazaros Sochos lived during a period of transition for Modern Greek sculpture, when neoclassicist ideals coexisted with a shift towards realism and the plastic ideas mainly emerging in Paris and Rodin’s work. His style was shaped by influences received during his apprenticeship with Drossis and his sojourn in the French capital, where he was mainly associated with sculptors representing academic sculpture, and thus never shedding his neoclassicist background. Believing that sculpture is an art of educational and moral purport and that Modern Greece could be revitalised through its classical past, he operated in the context of neoclassicism and idealism. In his works – mainly busts, monuments, reliefs and medals – a heroified figure prevails, reflecting his idealistic views, which informed both his creative career and his life.

Born into a large family, he experienced a rough childhood and adolescence, marked by hunger and imprisonment during the German Occupation.
His long artistic career began in 1946, when he made his first sculptures in plaster. Cycladic and archaic statuary as well as his encounter with Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture inspired him to create a series of wire, cloth and plaster figures.

In 1954, he settled in Paris. During the same year, he began the “Signals” series – kinetic sculptures producing musical sounds as they chime in the wind. In 1959, he showed at Iris Clert Gallery his first “Tele-Magnetic Sculptures”, making use of electromagnetic fields and thus offering in tangible form the invisible energy ever-present in the universe. The light and motion in every manifestation – mechanical, electromechanical, thermal, magnetic, hydrodynamic – have also been at the core of his work. Coming soon after, “Tele-Lights” were based on electromagnetic principles. In fact, during a performance in Iris Clert Gallery in 1960, thanks to a magnetic device made by the artist, the poet Sinclair Beiles was suspended several feet above ground, reciting the “Magnetic Manifesto”. During the same year began Takis’s long partnership with Alexander Iolas, with the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York held at the latter’s gallery.

During his stay in Paris, he met and hung out with the American writers of the Beat Generation; in New York, he met Marcel Duchamp. His autobiography (“Estafilades”) was published in 1961.

In 1968-1969, on MIT fellowship, he created his first “Hydro-magnetic Sculptures”. His “Musical Sculptures” had already appeared in 1965, in which musical sound is produced by random magnet movement. His explorations along these lines continued with the production of musical rooms as well as music and choreography happenings, culminating in the adaptation in 1992 of the aqueduct at the city of Beauvais into a huge musical sculpture. In 1974, he began producing casts of male and female bodies – the first in a series of erotic sculptures.

In his long creative activity, Takis has had major solo exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Centre National d’Art Contemporain (1972) and the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (1993); the latter was also held at the “Factory” building of the Athens School of Fine Arts (1994). In 1999, he first presented his Photovoltaic Sculptures” in “Takis Millennium”. He has also participated in major group events, including the “Documenta” in Kassel (1977) and “The Century of Kafka” at the Centre Georges Pompidou (1984); he also represented Greece at the Venice Biennale in 1995. In 1985, he received the first prize at the Paris Biennale and in 1988 the French Grand Prix National de Sculpture.

The theatre and the cinema also attracted his interest as an artist. Thus, in 1973, he designed the set for the ballet “Eleusis” at the Netherlands National Festival and in 1983 the set for “Electra” by Sophocles at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus. He also collaborated with director Costa Gavras in the soundtrack of the film “Section Speciale”.

Takis’s works are to be found in most contemporary art museums and private collections around the world. In 1987, the French government commissioned a series of Signals, which were installed at La Defense, Paris; in 1988, he produced a “Signal” for the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seoul; in 1990, “Light Signals” were installed at the Grande Arche at La Defense; in 1993, he designed a metro station in Toulouse. In the early 1990’s, Takis settled in Greece and in 1993 established the Centre for the Arts and Sciences at Gerovouno, Attica. In 2000, his “Homage to Apollo” was installed in Delphi – an enormous kinetic sculpture operating on photovoltaic energy and his largest public site sculpture in Greece.

An unswervingly self-taught artist, Takis is a rare inventor and among the artists who regenerated sculpture. Rejecting the art of realistic figuration as well as traditional techniques, he has supported his artistic expression through constant research, study and experimentation in the functional use of natural laws, combining science and art in his strife to initiate the viewer into the essence of the universe.

Having a family pedigree in sculpture, he received his first lessons from his father and his uncle, Lazaros Sochos, and went on to study at the School of Arts with Georgios Vroutos. In 1919, he went to Paris on Greek government scholarship, studying at the Academy of Fine Arts and also attending interior design courses. In 1922, he returned to Athens and in 1926 was elected Professor at the School of Architecture, NTUA.

His exhibition history included contributions to major group events in Greece and internationally, including exhibitions with artists’ groups “Omada Techni” and “Stathmi”, of which he was member, Panhellenic exhibitions, Paris Salons, as well as the Biennale of Venice (1934 and 1958) and the Sao Paulo Biennial (1955).

Early on, Antonios Sochos broke free of the dictates of neoclassicism and developed a personal plastic language, based on archaic Greek sculpture as well as the austere style, folk wood-carving, and influenced by the avant-garde trends which he discovered during his stay in Paris. Always focusing on the human figure, his works are inspired by mythology, Greek legends and folklore, made in stone and later wood, and exploring the possibilities offered by the textures of his materials. His works are characterized by abstract tendencies and an inclination for stylisation, balance, symmetry, frontality and immobility, reflecting the artist’s individual perception as well as his diverse influences.

His family had a tradition in marble working, since both his uncle and his father, Ioannis Chalepas, decorated churches and built funerary monuments. Yannoulis’ talent expressed itself at a very early age, but as soon as he finished grammar school his father sent him to Syros, to work for a merchant. After intense disputes his family moved to Athens in 1869. Yannoulis enrolled in the School of Arts and studied under the superb neoclassical-style sculptor Leonidas Drosis until 1872. His exceptional talent enabled him to finish the School in half the required time, while he won all the prizes in the various contests there. In 1873, on a scholarship from the Holy Evangelistria Foundation of Tinos he went to Munich and continued his studies at the Academy there under Max von Widnmann. The distinctions and prizes kept on coming and he seemed destined for a brilliant career. But in 1875, for unknown reasons and despite the endeavors and the remonstrations of his professors, his scholarship was cut off. He managed to remain in Munich for a while, assisted by his friend the subsequent well-known historian G. Konstantinidis. In 1876 he was forced to return once and for all to Athens where he opened his own workshop. During this period he made two of the most important works of the first stage of his artistic career: “Satyr Playing with Eros” (1877), for the model of which he won the gold medal at the Munich exhibition in 1875, and “Sleeping Female Figure” (1878), for the tomb of Sofia Afentaki in the First Cemetery of Athens. These works are characterized by the exceptional way in which the doctrines of neoclassicism are used.

In 1878 he showed the first symptoms of mental illness. This disease, which is inherited, according to certain researchers, was either due to heartbreak or was a manifestation of his exceptionally sensitive psyche. Because of this, his work came to a halt for forty entire years, and he was committed to the Mental Hospital of Corfu in 1888 diagnosed with dementia. In 1902, after the death of his father, his mother, who had always been opposed to his commitment, took him out of the Mental Hospital and brought him back to Tinos.

It is not known if during the many years that followed, he worked or not, even if only in the most rudimentary ways. A tiny head of a male figure in clay, which he made in the Mental Hospital, and is the only thing to survive from that time, shows that he had not completely lost his creative drive. This figure, completely unornamented, with a nearly featureless face and in part deformed, may represent a kind of tragic self-portrait.

During the period which followed, Chalepas, closed within himself, and in terrible distress, was kept under his mother’s strict supervision; she destroyed the works he made in clay, as she was of the opinion sculpture was responsible for his illness. In 1915 Theοdoros Vellianitis, through a series of his articles in the newspaper Αθήναι, managed to create a little stir in regard to this forgotten sculptor, but it quickly died down. The death of his mother in 1916 appears to have been decisive.The artist, undistracted at last, became to work intensively, creating, by the time of his death, a significant number of works, but which all remained at the level of clay models. During this phase of his work, he did not use any kind of framing, as he wanted to express himself with absolute freedom, for a frame would have imposed a specific outline and prevented any significant changes being made. Several of these compositions were later cast in plaster, but they never acquired the completed form of a finished work of art.

During this second stage of his creative career, he expressed himself in a completely different style, instinctually and spontaneously, which had its sources in its inner anxieties and expressed his personal experiences. And despite the fact that for years he had been cut off from the developments taking place in both Greek and European sculpture, his works often are oddly in tune with the avant garde quests to be encountered in expressionism, cubism and surrealism. Greek antiquity continues to be his main source of inspiration, while at the same time he elaborated on compositions that had been begun before the onset of his illness. Characteristic is “Medea” which he reworked a total of four times and “Satyr Playing with Eros”, which he reworked twelve times. For these two works in particular, the hypothesis has been formulated that they suggest the relationship of Chalepas with his parents and the role each of them played in the development of his life.

The form of the reclining female figure, alone or in combination with other figures, is another theme which frequently occupied him and it too may be of symbolic meaning.

Characteristic of this second stage of his career are the “double-fronted” works. In these compositions two different, heterogeneous figures, the one frequently made as a bust and the other full-figured, coexist in an antithetical state. And though some of them are referred to by various descriptive titles, they in fact combine figures of Greek antiquity and the Christian religion. Chalepas himself said that his intention here had been to show the links of the old religion with the new, but it would seem that there is symbolism hidden here as well, derived from his own personal experiences. And indeed, the experiences of the artist are quite obviously suggested in certain of his works from this second stage, in which the expression on the depicted figures reveals inner pain and the sense of being forsaken.

From this period of his career a significant number of drawings survive as well; many of these have been done in the account books of his father’ s business. In these drawings, sketched on top of each other, there can be seen the preparation of a work, the course it takes and its completion or even the solutions that in the end were not used. Characteristic of this is the fact that a number of them use the symbols found on decks of cards, the spade and the club, which symbolize, though discreetly, the male of female sex, while in other his self-portrait coexists with some other depictions, apparently unrelated.

The peculiar course that Chalepas’ life took did not, naturally enough, allow for much exhibition activity. After the endeavors of Theodoros Vellianitis in 1915, he remained in oblivion until 1922 when Thomas Thomopoulos visitεd him on Tinos and contributed to the organization of his first exhibition at the Athens Academy in 1925, with works cast in plaster. A second exhibition was presented by N. Velmos in 1928 at the Art Asylum, while a year earlier he had been awarded the High Distinction in Arts and Letters. After his death his work was presented in numerous retrospectives. In 1930 his niece Eirene took him with her to Athens where he lived for the final eight years of his life in familial tranquility, continuing to work intensively until his death.

She took her first painting lessons from an English painter when she was 8-10, since her parents were aware of her artistic talent, evident from an early age. In 1942, she went on to study at Athens College with Nikos Nakis, and in 1945, already mother to a child, she was admitted to the Athens School of Fine Arts, where she studied sculpture with professor Michalis Tombros. In the following years, she came into contact with Greek and international artists, including Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Ossip Zadkine and Jean Arp. In 1954, she became member of the art group “To ergastiri” [The workshop]. During the same year, she won second place at the Greek national contest for the Monument to the Greeks executed by Germans in Nikaia. She is also among the founding members of the Association of Greek Women Artists, in which she became vice chairman.

Her work has been presented in solo and major group exhibitions, including Panhellenic exhibitions, the Venice Biennale (1960), the Sao Paulo Biennale (1961) and the Montreal Biennale (1968) as well as the international exhibition of contemporary sculpture “Exposition Internationale de Sculpture Contemporaine” and the exhibition “Greek Painters and Sculptors in Paris” (Peintres et Sculpteurs Grecs de Paris), mounted in the French capital in 1961 and 1962 respectively. In 1986, a retrospective exhibition of her work was organised by the National Gallery in Athens.

Beginning with works in stone or bronze, focusing on the human figure and characterized by stylisation and accentuation of volumes, Alex Mylona progressively advanced towards abstraction. Even before 1960, she had developed her own personal vocabulary, creating metal works distinguished for their expressionistic content, extreme angular appendages, highlighting the expressive possibilities of the material, all manners of contrasts, reducing the subject to an element of secondary importance, as well as suppressing the third dimension. These features, along with the reintroduction of depth in her works, would also prevail in her later production, in which a tendency towards archaic and archetypal models, such as the double axe and the cross, is also evident, while figurative elements blend with abstract themes.

He studied at the Physics and Mathematics School, University of Thessaloniki (1942-1945) and then sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1945-1950) with Michalis Tombros. He also attended open courses at Thanassis Apartis’s workshop. He became professor (1979-1991) and dean (1984-1989) at the Athens School of Fine Arts and member of the Board as well as of the Art Committee of the National Gallery, Athens, and member of “Omada A” [Group A], “Group for Communication and Education in Art” and the Societe Europeenne de Culture.

His work was presented in solo and numerous group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including Panhellenic exhibitions, the Alexandria Biennale (1965 and 1978), the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture in Paris (1968 and 1969), the Europalia in Belgium (1982) and the “Metamorphoses of the Modern” at the National Gallery, Athens (1992).

In Giorgos Nikolaidis’s earliest works, the main subject is the human figure, rendered in a simplifying and abstract manner, evoking Geometric or Archaic art. During the 1960’s, he mainly worked in iron, approaching his work with lack of superficiality, developing in the 1970’s his personal vocabulary, and producing abstract works in stainless steel, combining cylindrical forms with sharp appendages, incorporating the void as an equal partner in the work, and evoking a ceaseless movement. From the 1980’s, his interest turned towards environment, resulting in environments with a sacred-ritual atmosphere in which the human figure plays a leading role.

He studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts with professor Yannis Pappas (1951-1956) and on Greek State scholarship went on to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1960-1963) with Louis Leygue. He became professor of sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts during 1972-1998 and taught as visiting professor at the School of Fine Arts, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki (1986-1987). He is among the founding members of the Centre of Visual Arts (1973) and the Association of Sculptors (1978), of which he also became chairman.

He had his first solo exhibition at the British Council (1969), followed by solo exhibitions in Greece and other countries and participation in group events, including the Alexandria Biennale (1965), in which he won the silver medal, the Sao Paulo Biennale (1969) and the Venice Biennale (1972).

Using stone, marble and metal, and focusing on the human figure, Thymios Panourgias fuses in his work folk and Archaic art elements with modern ideas. Cubist and abstract elements combine in works based on solid volumes, with an emphasis on simplification, stylisation, immobility and frontality. Solid volumes eventually acquired recesses and openings, suggestive of a natural landscape incorporating the figures, whereas later on the human presence gave way to abstract depictions of nature.

He took his first drawing lessons from Konstantinos Maleas, studied sculpture at the Academie Colarossi in Paris (1934-1936) and became friends with Thanassis Apartis. He also studied at the Law School, University of Athens and attended theatre and violin courses at the Athens National Conservatory. An artist of broad intellectual interests, he published and translated many articles on art. In 1963, he was awarded by AICA’s Greek section and in 1971 received a Ford scholarship. The following year, in protest against the Greek junta, he rejected the first national prize. He was founding member of “Armos” [Junction] group as well as of the “Group for Communication and Education in Art”.

His work was presented in solo exhibitions and group events, including Panhellenic exhibitions, the Salon des Independants in Paris, exhibitions of the “Armos” group, the Biennale of Venice in 1956 and 1966, the Sao Paulo and Alexandria Biennale in 1959, the Europalia in Belgium (1982) and “Metamorphoses of the Modern” at the National Gallery, Athens (1992). In 1997, a posthumous retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted at the Vafopouleio Cultural Centre in Thessaloniki.

Beginning with realistic, anthropocentric works, invoking Archaic sculpture or folk art, Klearchos Loukopoulos joined abstraction, after a period of transition, when he was inspired by Mycenaean figurines. At the same time, he abandoned marble and stone and switched to metal, creating works featuring polyhedral forged metal forms, invoking Mycenaean stone wall masonry. Based on various combinations of geometric forms, extended in vertical or horizontal patterns in space, his work after 1970 developed constructivist traits. In a broader context of creative activity, he collaborated with architects in projects for the Hellenic Tourism Organization (E.O.T.) stores and hotels.

An icon painter and wood sculptor, Konstantinos Papadimitriou came from Vracha, in Evrytania, a mountainous region in central Greece; he lived and worked in the 19th century. For many years he worked at Polygyros, Chalkidiki; he made the church temple at Argalasti, Volos and the throne of the Virgin at Makrynitsa (1843). In his secular wood sculpture, which combines sculpture and painting, he also depicted famous heroes from the Greek War of Independence (1821), such as “Georgios Karaiskakis” in the National Gallery collection. Three such figures, carved in wood and painted, including “Markos Botsaris”, belong to the National History Museum. In 1830, he also made in-the-round statues and group sculptures at Neochori in Zagora (Pelion).

She studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1966-1972) with Thanassis Apartis, Yannis Pappas and Dimitris Kalamaras as well as theatre set design with Vassilis Vassiliadis. During 1975-1978, she went for further studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, attending sculpture courses with Cesar and costume design courses with Marcel Gili.

She has presented drawings for her works in solo exhibitions and has participated at the Salon du mai in Paris, the Alexandria Biennale (1980) and Panhellenic exhibitions.

Inspired by Greek nature, the architecture of the Aegean and Archaic sculpture, Aspassia Papadoperaki’s works are distinguished for the architectural quality of their forms, their measure, proportions and symmetry – a concept she has explored in depth.

He studied literature, philosophy and law in Paris and in 1929 enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he studied sculpture with Jean Boucher. From 1932, aside from work in his own workshop, he was also employed as draftsman at the Cast Museum of the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Louvre. In 1937, he returned to Greece but in 1944 was conscripted and served at a naval base in Alexandria. He remained there until 1950, and in 1953, following his return to Greece, was elected professor of sculpture at the School of Fine Arts. He taught until 1978, and was director for ten years beginning 1959. In 1972, he was elected associate member of the French Academy of Fine Arts and in 1980 member of the Academy of Athens.

His first solo exhibition was held in Alexandria in 1950, followed by solo exhibitions in Athens; a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1992 at the National Gallery, Athens. He also participated in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including the Salon d’Automne (1936) and Salon des Tuileries (1936 and 1938) in Paris, the Paris International Exhibition (1937), the Biennale of Venice (1978) as well as Panhellenic exhibitions.

In his sculpture, which includes busts, statues, heroa, monuments and free compositions, emerge influences from a broad range of models – from ancient Greek and Egyptian sculpture to contemporary art. Faithful to the depiction of the human figure, his first work was predominantly realistic and full of psychological insight before evolving in the late 1950’s to a more simplified and unadorned approach, emphasising the plastic values. Along with sculpture, he also became involved with painting and drawing – here, too, remaining faithful to figurative art.

He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1952-1958) with Yannis Pappas, and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1961-1964) on Greek State scholarship. He completed his studies with courses with Ossip Zadkine and Robert Couturier. In 1966, he taught at the Athens School of Fine Arts as assistant to Yannis Pappas, and from 1968 until 1976 free drawing at the Athens Technological Institute. He has been member of the art group “Armos” [Junction] and of the Association of Sculptors.

His exhibition activity includes solo shows and participation in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including exhibitions of the “Armos” group, Panhellenic exhibitions as well as the Biennale of Sao Paulo (1967), Venice (1970) and Budapest (1971).

In his work, Yannis Parmakelis was initially interested in traditional forms of sculpture, emphasising realistic traits, often adopting an archaic vocabulary. During 1968-1974 and as a result of his wish to voice social and political criticism, the human being became the focus of his sculpture, and his compositions became surrealistic and expressionistic, with passion and intensity reaching great intensity in his series Martyrs and Victims. He progressively turned towards abstraction, using geometric forms in order to create colourful constructions from readymade industrial materials. Besides free sculptures, he has also produced works for public sites and a great number of medals.

She began her studies at the Sommerakademie (1957) in Salzburg, where she took sculpture lessons from Ewald Matare, and continued at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1957-1962), where she was taught sculpture by Fritz Wotruba. She also studied Sociology of Art at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (1967-1973) in Paris with Jean Cassou. In 1971, her work “Synectron” was patented in France.

In 1963, she had her first solo exhibition at the Wurthle Gallery, Vienna, followed by solo events in Greece and other countries. She has also participated in group exhibitions, including the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture in Paris, the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Dusseldorf (1973), the Europalia in Belgium (1982), the Alexandria Biennale (1982), in which she won the third award for sculpture, and the Metamorphoses of the Modern at the National Gallery in Athens (1992).

Beginning with anthropocentric work, Nausika Pastra progressively turned towards abstraction. Since 1968, she has developed a personal plastic language, in which mathematical relations and experimentation with geometric forms play a leading role. The outcome of her experimentations in this direction was Synectron, a new, dynamic two-dimensional shape, evolving from the combination of a circle and a square, part of her series Analogic. Analogic eventually incorporated the third dimension, in sculptures based on semicircle and right angle patterns, which in the 1990’s became more dynamically assertive in 3-D space; her work has evolved into a representation of the material aspect of things in space and time.

He learned the art of marble carving from the marble sculptor Eleftherios Panoussis; he also studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts with professor Thomas Thomopoulos (1928-1933). In the 1930’s, he worked at the workshops of Kostas Dimitriadis and Michalis Tombros. In 1941, he was permanently appointed as sculptor at the Athens National Archaeological Museum; during the interval 1947-1951 he continued his studies in Paris on a French Academy fellowship. In the French capital, he studied at the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux Arts with professors Marcel Gimond, Alfred Janniot and Henri Dropsy. In 1974, he established a private School of Fine Arts on the island of Paros, where he was born, in which he taught children free of charge. In 1972, he received the first national award for the Visual Arts and in 1991 the Excellence of Fine Arts of the Academy of Athens.

His exhibition activity began with the exhibitions of the “Free Artists” Union (1935 and 1936). His work was presented in Panhellenic exhibitions, the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris (1948 and 1949) as well as the Biennale of Venice (1936 and 1956) and of Alexandria (1955). He also participated in international medal fairs; a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Argo Gallery in 1994.

His daily immersion in ancient Greek sculpture and his acquaintance with Aristide Maillol’s work largely shaped in part Nikos Perantinos’s plastic language. His juvenile works until around the mid-1950’s were characterized by plasticity, unity of levels, clarity of form, concentration on what is essential and a monumental quality. Even though he always maintained his technical excellence, he eventually confined himself to conventional plastic solutions of an academic nature. Besides his free compositions, he also made busts, sepulchral and other monuments, reliefs, medals and coins.

She began her studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts with Thomas Thomopoulos and on scholarship from the Averoff Estate continued at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris with Antoine Bourdelle (1927-1930). At the same time, she attended courses at Dimitris Galanis’s workshop. She returned to Athens in 1930 and became member of “Omada Techni” [Art Group]. She travelled in Italy, Germany, UK and Balkan countries and in 1945 settled in Paris.

She began her exhibition activity in 1930 with a solo exhibition at the Stratigopoulos Gallery, followed by solo exhibitions in Greece and other countries; in 1980, a retrospective exhibition of her work was organised at the National Gallery in Athens. She also showed her work in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture in Paris, exhibitions with “Omada Techni”, the Venice Biennale (1934 and 1940), the Paris International Exhibition (1937) and Panhellenic exhibitions.

Bella Raftopoulou’s artistic development took a path towards abstract formulations, without, however, completely rejecting visual reality. Working mainly in stone, which she carved directly, she focused on the female figure as well as animals and birds. In her earliest works, the realistic approach reflected what she had learned from her professor and, in certain cases, even Rodin; a curvilinear approach and frontality are characteristic in her works. Her style progressively became more abstract and her forms more stylised, the background became limited and pronounced curvatures gave way to geometric and organic elements of a flat treatment, which added an architectural quality to her work. Apart from large-scale sculptures in stone, she also created small, abstract, expressionistic works in bronze and lead on a slate pedestal or background on subjects inspired by Greek mythology; also medals. She became especially involved with engraving, primarily wood printing, which echo the style of her sculptural work; during 1925-1927, she collaborated with the Sikelianos couple in their Delphic Festival, designing costumes and choreography, inspired by ancient Greek pottery images.

He studied sculpture (1956-1962) with Yannis Pappas at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 1964-1974, he worked at Nikos Kerlis’s foundry and later at the archaeological museums in Delphi and Olympia.

His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including Greek national exhibitions, the Paris Biennale Internationale des Jeunes Artistes (1967), the Sao Paulo Biennale (1971) and the Budapest Biennale (1971).

Inspired by the human figure and human condition, and using plaster, wax, clay and bronze, Spyros Katapodis blended figurative and abstract approaches as well as cubist and constructivist elements, producing emotionally charged compositions with surrealistic and expressionistic overtones.

A pupil of Thanassis Apartis (1942-1954), he also collaborated with the sculptors Giorgos Zongolopoulos and Christos Kapralos. For a short period, he studied painting at Dimitrios Biskinis’s workshop in the Athens School of Fine Arts and attended free courses in history of art, painting and pottery. In 1950, he attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He became professor at the Athens Technological Institute (Doxiadis Technical School) and was founding member of “Omada Technis A” [Art Group A].

His work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions, including Panhellenic exhibitions, the 1957 Sao Paulo Biennale, where he received an honorary distinction, the 1959 Alexandria Biennale, where he won the bronze medal, and the “Panathenaia” exhibition of contemporary sculpture in Athens (1965). In 1985, a retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted in Evmaros Gallery in Athens.

Kostas Klouvatos began with a figurative approach, producing works which revolve around the human condition, using a realistic, but simplified treatment. In 1960, he began to adopt abstract forms and expressionistic elements, always with an eye to expressing his social ideas. In his most recent work, taking as his point of departure pre-classical and folk art, he combined elements from various periods of Greek tradition. The harmonious integration of volume and colour in space as well as the integration of art in daily life have also been recurring themes from his early career. He has also created set designs for the theatre as well as medals, and saw to establishing the first foundries in Greece.

He came from the island of Tinos. His early studies were with Thomas Thomopoulos at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1932-1938). On an Academy of Athens scholarship, he continued at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris with Jean Boucher, winning the first prize in 1939. The outbreak of World War I forced him to interrupt his studies and return to Greece. He was founding member of the avant-garde group “Akraioi” [Extremists], led by Alekos Kontopoulos, established in 1949. In 1953, his Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner was awarded at an international competition and was subsequently on show at the Tate Gallery, London. In 1956, he was elected regular member of the International Institute of Letters and Arts and in 1957 received the first prize in sculpture by the Municipality of Athens. In 1960-1987, he was professor at the Department of Plastic, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens. In 1969, he published a study entitled “Πλαστική” (Plastic) and in 1975 the “Χωροθετικό διάγραμμα γλυπτών έργων Δήμου Αθηναίων Νεωτέρας Ελλάδος” (Location Chart Of Modern Greek Sculptures of the Municipality of Athens). He was also awarded the Commander of the Phoenix medal of the Hellenic Republic.

His exhibition activity was prolific, beginning with group exhibitions. In 1933, he exhibited with “Omada Techni” and then with “Eleftheroi Kallitechnai” [Free Artists] (1937-1939). He also took part in Panhellenic exhibitions, the Sao Paulo Biennale (1955, 1961) and the Venice Biennale (1960) as well as in the exhibition “Metamorphoses of the Modern” at the National Gallery (1992). In 1979, a solo exhibition of his work entitled “Touch – Art – Child” was mounted at the National Gallery for the benefit of deaf-mute children.

A sculptor who comfortably moved between traditional art and contemporary currents, Lazaros Lameras revealed through his non-figurative sculptures his taste for experimentation with avant garde trends as early as 1932; between 1945-1948 he created his first abstract compositions. In his figurative works, which he never entirely abandoned, he was mainly interested in the structural characteristics of the composition, avoiding narrative elements, and using typical Archaic plastic elements. From around 1958, his involvement with abstraction led him to plant-like works, in which verticality and motion play a major part. From 1960, he produced works for blind adults and children, which produce sound and combine movement with sculpture and painting. He also made heroa and monuments.

With a talent for the arts since his early childhood, he studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1965-1969) with Yannis Pappas.

His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, among them Panhellenic exhibitions and participations in group events in Greece and the world.

Beginning with drawing and painting, which he never abandoned, Giorgos Lambrou turned to sculpture in 1972. His early works consisted of wire constructions, maintaining contact with visual reality and characterized by austerity, stylisation and their interest in capturing the essential. He went on to create solid bronze figures without limbs nor individuality, closely interlinked with one another and surrounded by horizontal wavy grooves, invoking a stifling atmosphere. In these works as well as in his “Wastebaskets”, Lambrou practises social criticism, voicing his protest for today’s mass society and the rejection of values.