Biography
Lazaros Lameras was born in Athens in 1913, with family roots in Ysternia, Tinos, a village famed for its marble-carving tradition. He studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1932–1938) with Thomas Thomopoulos and Konstantinos Dimitriadis, graduating with distinction. In 1938 he won an Academy of Athens scholarship and continued at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with the renowned sculptor Jean Boucher, receiving First Prize there in 1939.
Back in Athens, Lameras became an active presence on the art scene. He first exhibited as early as 1933 with the group Techni, and between 1937–1939 showed with Free Artists. In the postwar years he co-founded Akraioi (The Extremes) under painter Alekos Kontopoulos, helping usher modern tendencies into Greek art. Among the first Greek sculptors to embrace abstraction, he began experimenting with abstract form by the mid-1940s while never losing his command of classical plastic values. A signature early work is Penteli in Ecstasy (1948), one of Greece’s first abstract sculptures, shown at the first postwar Panhellenic Art Exhibition (1948) to strong reactions. In parallel he produced finely observed realist portraits, such as the bust of actress Marika Kotopouli (1937, Rex Theatre, Athens) and, later, the poet Kostis Palamas (Filothei). With an unusually broad expressive range, he moved fluently between tradition and the modern, combining figuration with a new abstract language.
Lameras exhibited widely and gained recognition in Greece and abroad. He was a regular at the Panhellenic Art Exhibitions and represented Greece at major internationals: the São Paulo Bienal (1955, 1961) and the Venice Biennale (1960). His monumental Unknown Political Prisoner (1953) won a prize in the international competition organized by London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts and was shown at the Tate Gallery, bringing international notice. Honors at home followed: First Sculpture Prize (City of Athens, 1959) and the Order of the Phoenix (1961) for the monument Bizanomachoi (Fighters of Bizani). In 1956 (sources also cite 1957) he was elected Professor of Plastic Arts at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), where he taught until 1987, shaping a generation of artists and architects. He also wrote theory: Plastic (1969) and the survey Spatial Chart of Sculptural Works of the Municipality of Athens (1975), which helped map Greece’s public sculpture.
Restless and socially minded, Lameras staged an innovative solo at the National Gallery in 1979 titled “Touch–Art–Child,” presenting kinetic, hands-on sculptures designed for children and visitors with visual impairments—a rare, early statement on accessibility in art. Throughout his career he appeared in landmark surveys of Greek modernism, including “Transformations of the Modern” (National Gallery, 1992), affirming his central role in 20th-century Greek sculpture.
Lameras’s work is defined by economy of form, geometric clarity, and a poised fusion of Greek tradition with modernism. Working chiefly in marble and metal, he created both human-centered compositions and abstract forms inspired by history and universal ideals. His sculptures stand in public spaces across Greece, alongside numerous commemorative busts (e.g., Kostis Palamas in Filothei; monuments on Tinos). The National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum holds emblematic pieces such as Penteli in Ecstasy and Two Maidens (1950), with further works in other public and municipal collections. Lazaros Lameras died in Athens on 24 September 1998, aged 85. His legacy places him among the most important Greek sculptors of the 20th century—and a pioneer of abstraction in Greece.
Bibliography
- Kostas Ioannidis (ed.), Lazaros Lameras: Narratives of Modernism in Greece. Tinos: Foundation of Tinian Culture, 2008.
- Lexicon of Greek Artists: Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, 16th–20th c. Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon / Melissa, 1997–2000 (entry “Lazaros Lameras”).
- Lazaros Lameras, exhibition catalogue. Athens: Titanium Gallery, 1995.
- Lazaros Lameras, exhibition catalogue. Athens: B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation, 2010.
- National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum: online bio (nationalgallery.gr).
- Institute of Contemporary Greek Art (ISET): Digital Archive — Lazaros Lameras.
This biography was created with the assistance of AI.