Michael Tombros (or Michalis Tombros, el, Μιχάλης Τόμπρος, 12 November 1889 – 28 May 1974) was a Greek sculptor who was influential in introducing avant-garde styles into Greece.
Life
Michael Tombros was born in Athens in 1889, son of a marble sculptor from
Korthio
Korthio ( el, Κόρθιο) is a former municipality on the island of Andros, in the Cyclades, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Andros, of which it is a municipal unit. Its population was 1,948 inhabitan ...
, Andros island.
He attended the
Athens School of Fine Arts from 1903 to 1909.
He studied sculpture with
Georgios Vroutos
Georgios Vroutos ( el, Γεώργιος Βρούτος; Athens 1843 – Athens January 10, 1909) was a renowned Greek sculptor of the 19th century.
Biography
Georgios Vroutos was born in Athens in 1843, into a family originating from Crete. He s ...
and
Lazaros Sochos
Lazaros Sochos ( el, Λάζαρος Σώχος; 1862–1911) was a Greek sculptor. He was born in Tinos and educated in Athens under Leonidas Drosis. He later studied also in Paris.
He is best known for the statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in ...
, and drawing with
Dimitrios Geraniotis
Dimitrios Geraniotis ( el, Δημήτριος Γερανιώτης, 1871 – 23 May 1966) was a Greek portrait painter and professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Life
Dimitrios Geraniotis was born in Athens in 1871.
He studied painting at ...
, Alexandros Kalloudis and
Georgios Jakobides
Georgios Jakobides (Γεώργιος Ιακωβίδης; 11 January 1853 – 13 December 1932) was a painter and one of the main representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School. He founded and was the first curator of the Nati ...
. He also worked at the marble sculpture workshop of N.M. Perakis.
In 1910 he set up his own studio in Athens.
In 1914 he obtained a scholarship from the estate of
George Averoff which let him study at the
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...
in Paris under
Henri Bouchard and
Paul Landowski.
Michael Tombros returned to Athens in 1919 and was appointed temporary professor of Sculpture in Architecture at the
National Technical University of Athens
The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...
(NTUA), while continuing to travel and to undertake commissions.
He resigned from the NTUA in 1923 due to its opposition to establishment of a war museum.
In 1925 he returned to Paris, where he stayed until 1928 with a workshop in Montparnasse.
There he met artists such as
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
.
During this period he was active in exhibitions and experimented with avant-garde techniques after encountering them for the first time.
After returning to Greece, between 1933 and 1934 Tombros published ''20ός Αιώνας'' (''20th Century''), an influential magazine on the visual arts.
The magazine was large, well printed in black and white, with a colored cover.
It was the first purely pictorial magazine in Greece, covering a range of international subjects and including criticism and commentary by artists and intellectuals such as
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
,
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...
,
Christian Zervos Christian Zervos ( el, Χρήστος Ζερβός; Argostoli, Cefalonia, Greece, January 1, 1889 – September 12, 1970, Paris) was a Greek-French art historian, critic, collector, writer and publisher.
Better known as an art critic in his own ri ...
,
Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas and
Zacharias Papantoniou
Zacharias Papantoniou ( el, Ζαχαρίας Παπαντωνίου, ''Zacharias Papandoniou'') was a Greek writer. He was born in Karpenissi of Evrytania in February 1877 and died in Athens in 1940. He spent the first years of his life in Granit ...
.
Tombros was a full professor of sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1938 to 1960, and a director of the school from 1957 to 1959.
In 1943 he was appointed Director of Fine Arts at the Ministry of Education.
He was elected a member of the
Academy of Athens in 1968.
Michael Tombros died on 28 May 1974.
Work
Sculptures by Michael Tombros were exhibited in major solo and group exhibitions including the
Salon des Artistes Francais
The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...
,
Salon des Tuileries and
Salon des Independants in Paris, the 1937
in Paris, the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
(1934, 1938 and 1956), and the
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...
(1955).
He played an important role in encouraging development of avant-garde art in Greece, and experimented with abstraction, cubism and surrealism.
However, he was not always successful in his experiments, and often followed a more conventional academic style with commissioned works.
The
Municipal Art Gallery of Ioannina
The Municipal Art Gallery of Ioannina ( el, Δημοτική Πινακοθήκη Ιωαννίνων) is an art museum in Ioannina, Greece that has been open in its current building since 2000. The collection of over 500 items ranges from classical ...
holds examples of his sculpture.
Notes
Sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tombros, Michael
1889 births
1974 deaths
Greek sculptors
Academic staff of the Athens School of Fine Arts
Members of the Academy of Athens (modern)
Artists from Athens
20th-century Greek sculptors
19th-century Greek sculptors