Michael Tombros

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Tombros or Michalis Tombros ( Greek Μιχάλης Τόμπρος , born November 12, 1889 in Athens ; † May 28, 1974 ibid) was a Greek sculptor .

life and work

Tombros came from a family of sculptors from Korthi on Andros . From 1903 to 1909 he studied sculpture and drawing at the Athens School of Fine Arts . His teachers were Georgios Broutos , Lazaros Soros , Alexandros Kaloudris and Dimitrios Geraniotis . In 1910 he opened a studio in Athens, but in 1914 went to Paris on a grant from the Georgios Averoff Foundation to continue his studies at the Académie Julian . Here he made the acquaintance of the sculptor Paul Landowski , along with other artists . In 1919 he returned to Athens and took on an honorary professorship for sculpture at the architecture faculty of the National Technical University there , but lost it in 1923 due to his attitude towards a planned war museum. He then lived for a while, until 1928, again in Paris, where he came into contact with the artistic avant-garde , and went on trips, a. a. to Olympia to study the temple statues of the Temple of Zeus ( Zeus statue of Phidias ) and those of Paris . From 1933 to 1934 he published the avant-garde art magazine XXè Siècle , in which articles by Le Corbusier , Fernand Léger and Christian Zervos also appeared.

In 1938, through the intervention of the Metaxas regime , he became professor of sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts . He taught here until 1960 and was its director from 1957 to 1959. He represented Greece, also at Metaxas's instigation, at the Venice Biennale in 1938, at which he had already exhibited in 1934, and again later in 1956. He was represented at the 1955 São Paulo Biennale . A major retrospective was organized in Athens as early as 1959, and a second one in 1972. In 1967 he was honored with a medal by the Academy of Athens and in 1968 he was elected as a full member.

Tombros' works were initially based on classical art. He worked in marble, bronze, plaster or clay. Later they approached more and more modern art, influenced by the French sculptor Aristide Maillol , with anthropocentric, especially female, forms, while his commissioned work continues to be academic. Tombros also worked with the well-known Greek painter Nikos Chatzikyriakos-Ghikas .

As commissioned work, he created numerous war memorials and memorials to national heroes. One of his most famous works is the equestrian statue of the freedom fighter Georgios Karaiskakis in Athens. Works by the artist can also be seen on his home island Andros, for whose museum for contemporary art numerous works were donated in 1979.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tombros, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Τόμπρος, Μιχάλης (Greek); Tombros, Michalis; Tompros, Michalēs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1974
Place of death Athens