Material: BRONE 6e
Size: 28 CM X 23 CM X 24 CM,
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1994 2/8
Philolaos Tloupas PHILOLAOS (1923 -2010), better known as ‘Philolaos’, was born in Larissa in 1923. As his father was a carpenter he gained hands-on experience early on. From 1944 until 1947 he attended the School of Fine Arts in Athens and studied with the sculptors Michael Tompros and Athanasios Apartis. In 1950 he left for Paris and briefly attended classes at the atelier of Marcel Gimond at the École des Beaux-Arts before settling in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse in the region of Paris, where he taught ceramics at the Centre de Claireau from 1951 to 1967. It was in Saint Rémy that he built his atelier in 1967.
Curious by nature, Philolaos was keen on working with new materials and discovering new methods and combinations, always impatient to see where his experiments would take him. In the 50s he started to work with lead for small sculptures and portraits, and afterwards iron, which allowed him to realise sculptures of a larger size. It was by hammering, bending and welding sheets of metal that Philolaos found his own means of expression and departed from the formalism of his academic studies. His sculptures became more stylized and abstract, as can be appreciated in the full length portrait ‘Claudine’ from 1957. He also started to create furniture and jewelry.
In the early 1960s Philolaos discovered first the possibilities of stainless steel and subsequently of washed concrete, which gave a new impulse to both his artwork and his career. The combination of these materials allowed him to create monumental sculptures for public places. His meeting with the architect André Gomis marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. In 1963 Gomis commissioned a water reservoir sculpture, the Châteaux d’eau de Valence in Drome. The two tower-sculptures, 52 and 57 m in height, were realized in 1971 and earned Philolaos in 1981 first prize for the best urban art project of the decade 1970-1980.
Keenly interested in the integration of sculpture in an urban environment, Philolaos continued throughout the 70s and until the beginning of the 2000s to work with major architects for whom he created numerous sculptures and fountains throughout France. In recognition for his work he was awarded in 1984 the Medal of Fine arts from the French Academy of Architecture. In 2005, while he had an exhibition in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris, he was conferred the title of ‘Officer of Arts and Letters’
Best known to the public for his monumental sculptures, Philolaos also created sculptures in smaller sizes in clay and wood. Among these were portraits, figurines, and his ‘gogottes’, imaginary creatures that were a pigment of his imagination, as well as bas-reliefs in driftwood or turned wood, which he sculpted during the summer in his house in Greece (see above the landscape L’Orage from 1984) A truly versatile artist, he made many sculpture/domestic objects, such as mirrors (see: Mirroir Décalé), closets, lamps, fireplaces, tables, chairs and fauteuils (two chairs are on permanent display in PROSOPO GALLERY), as well as jewelry, such as necklaces, rings and bracelets.
