Biography
Thanasis Apartis was a leading Greek sculptor whose life and work embodied a diasporic double identity. Born in Smyrna in 1899, he settled in Athens with his family after the city’s destruction in 1922. Early training with painter Vassilios Ithakissios and the Armenian sculptor Gerasimos Papazian introduced him to drawing and sculpture.
In 1919 he left for Paris, enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, where he studied with Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard. A decisive encounter came in 1921 with Antoine Bourdelle, who invited him to continue at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière; Apartis remained there until 1925. A scholarship from Elena Venizelos allowed him to extend his Paris stay for two decades. He showed regularly at the major Paris Salons and produced portraits and busts of prominent figures. In 1939, France awarded him the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.
With the outbreak of World War II, Apartis returned to Greece (1940) and remained in Athens during the Occupation. After the war he divided his time between Paris and Athens until settling permanently in Greece in 1956. He turned increasingly to teaching: sculpture at the Athens Technological Institute (Doxiadis Schools) from 1959, and, from 1961 to 1969, professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 1967 he was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Exhibition highlights include representing Greece at the Venice Biennale (1950), participating in the Alexandria Biennale (1961), and a major international sculpture show at the Musée Rodin (1971). A full retrospective followed at Greece’s National Gallery in 1984.
Apartis focused on the human figure—busts, partial, and full-length statues—combining the clarity of ancient Egyptian and Archaic Greek models with lessons from French sculpture. Hallmarks of his style include lucid volumes, firm contours, and structural solidity, joining realism with an inner, spiritual resonance. Notable busts portray Ioannis Psycharis, Nikos Kazantzakis, Angelos Sikelianos, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and the hero Odysseas Androutsos. His public monuments include statues of Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Smyrna, the ensemble Afanís Náftis (Unknown Sailor) in Chios, and The Smile of Athens on the façade of the Bank of Greece. Works are held by the National Gallery of Greece, the Athens Municipal Gallery, the National Bank of Greece collection, and others.
Counted among the most important Greek sculptors of the twentieth century—alongside contemporaries such as Michalis Tombros—Apartis helped bring the modern spirit of Paris into Greek sculpture, shaping generations of younger artists. His journey from cosmopolitan Smyrna to Paris and back to Athens fused eastern roots with western influences, bridging classical tradition and modernism and leaving a lasting mark on modern Greek art.
Selected Bibliography
- Stelios Lydakis, Greek Sculptors—Modern Greek Sculpture (vol. 5). Athens: Melissa, 1981, pp. 274–276.
- Thanasis Apartis (1899–1972), exhibition catalogue (ed. Olga Mentzafou, preface Dimitris Papastamos). National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens, 1984.
- “Apartis, Thanasis,” Papyrus–Larousse–Britannica Encyclopedia, vol. 10. Athens: Papyros, 1996, p. 130.
- Lexicon of Greek Artists: Painters – Sculptors – Printmakers, 16th–20th c., vol. 1 (ed. Eugenios D. Matthiopoulos). Athens: Melissa, 1997.
- Benezit Dictionary of Artists, vol. 1. Paris: Éditions Gründ, 2006.
This biography was created with the assistance of AI.