Adriana Janacópulos (1897 - c. 1978) was a 20th-century Brazilian sculptor.

Biography

Adriana Janacopulos was born in

Petrópolis Petrópolis (), also known as the Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 Brazilian census, Petrópolis mun ...

Rio de Janeiro in 1897. Of Greek descent, she was the niece of the politician Pandiá Calógeras. After the death of her mother, Adriana moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

with her sister

Vera Vera may refer to: Names *Vera (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Vera (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) **Vera (), archbishop of the archdiocese of Tarr ...

, who would become a lyric singer. In Paris, Janacopulos studied sculpture with

Léo Laporte-Blairsy Léo Laporte-Blairsy (1865-1923) was a French sculptor. L'épave (Le Voyage à Nantes) (15044567422).jpg, ''L'Épave'' (1907), musée des beaux-arts de Nantes. Léo Laporte-Blairsy - Le Réveil de Morphée - Musée des Augustins - RA 970.jpg, ...

, Raoul Larche and

Antoine Bourdelle Antoine Bourdelle (; 30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important ...

and befriended

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Lithuanian-born French-American Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, domi ...

and artists from the Russian colony. She married the Russian sculptor, Alexandre Wolkowyski, with whom she had two daughters. When

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out, the Janacopulos sisters moved to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and then to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. After the end of the war, she returned to Paris, exhibiting her works in several artistic salons, such as the Salon d'Automne, and the

Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

. She lived with the Brazilian artists of modernism, such as

Anita Malfatti Anita Catarina Malfatti (December 2, 1889 – November 6, 1964) is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil. Her solo exhibition in São Paulo, in 1917–1918, was controversial at t ...

Victor Brecheret Victor Brecheret, born ''Vittorio Breheret'' (December 15, 1894 – December 17, 1955), was an Italian-Brazilian sculptor. He lived most of his life in São Paulo, except for his studies in Paris in his early twenties. Brecheret's work combin ...

and Di Cavalcanti, participating in the Latin American Art Exhibition of 1924 (Exposição de Arte Latino-Americana de 1924). Janacópulos divorced Wolkowyski in 1926. She continued to exhibit in Paris until she returned to Brazil in 1932. With the support of her uncle and the Association of Brazilian Artists, Janacopulos exhibited her first and only solo exhibition in Brazil at the Palace Hotel in Rio. The exhibition was attended by artists and politicians. She went on to receive commissions from individuals and government agencies. She sculpted the tomb of the poet Felipe d'Oliveira in 1933 and in 1935 made three monuments in honor of the dead of the

Constitutionalist Revolution The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 (sometimes also referred to as Paulista War or Brazilian Civil War) is the name given to the uprising of the population of the Brazilian state of São Paulo against the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 wh ...

of 1932 for the faculties of law, medicine and engineering of the

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

. In 1938 Janacópulos received a commission from the Ministry of Education and Health, to sculpt a work for the

Gustavo Capanema Palace The Gustavo Capanema Palace (), also known architecturally as the Ministry of Education and Health Building, is a government office building in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the first modernist project in Brazil, it is historically import ...

. She participated in the first

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 ...

, in 1951. After the death of Vera in 1955, Adriana honored her sister with a bust, inaugurated in 1958 in

Paris Square Paris Square can mean: * Paris Square (Haifa), a city square in Haifa * Paris Square (Jerusalem), a city square in Jerusalem * Pariser Platz, a city square in Berlin * Paris Square (Rio de Janeiro), a city square in Brazil {{disambig ...

, in Rio de Janeiro.

References

Content in this edit is translated from the existing Portuguese Wikipedia article at :pt:Adriana Janacópulos; see its history for attribution. {{DEFAULTSORT:Janacópulos, Adriana 1897 births 1970s deaths 20th-century Brazilian sculptors 20th-century Brazilian women artists Brazilian people of Greek descent People from Petrópolis