Papachristopoulos Costis (Costi)

He studied sculpture at the School of Fine Arts (1920-1925) with professor Thomas Thomopoulos. Immediately after his studies, he went to Paris, where he attended courses at the Academie Julian with Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard; from 1926, he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere under Antoine Bourdelle. He returned to Greece in 1930, and in 1938 went to Rome in order to learn the lost wax bronze casting process. Following his return to Athens, he introduced for the first time in Greece this process in his work. In 1945, he settled in Paris.

He has presented his work in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and other countries, including Panhellenic exhibitions, “Omada Techni” exhibitions, the “Salons des Independants” and the “Salons des Tuileries” in Paris, the Venice Biennale (1940) and the Rodin Museum International Exhibition of Modern Sculpture (Paris 1956).

Influenced from his Paris years, especially Bourdelle’s teachings and Maillol’s sculpture, Kostis Papachristopoulos remained faithful to an anthropocentric approach, mainly producing busts and female nudes. Besides sculpture, he was involved with painting, creating realistic nudes and still lifes as well as impressionist landscapes.