Untitled

Γιώργος Τούγιας
98,5 x 130 cm
MCA.MMCA.C273
Painting work

George Touyas was born in 1922 in Athens. He initially studied economics and political sciences (1940-1945) and then studied painting and printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1946-1950). He settled in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, specializing in fresco and large surface painting. He lived for a long time in the French capital, dividing his time between Athens and Paris. The figurative painting of his early period gave way to a highly expressive gestural painting of mainly abstract compositions. Always having in mind that art should be linked to the social and political situation, he produced a series of works of critical content concerning the political and social conditions of the period of the dictatorship. During the post-independence period, he created large-scale sculptures, installations and environments, which consisted mainly of cylindrical pipe-ducts, in which a conceptual dimension was implied and which constituted the artist's critical commentary on the contemporary image of society and the alienation brought about by technological culture. His solo exhibition activity was limited, but he took part in important group exhibitions and international events, among which the Panhellenic (1952, 1963, 1965), various Parisian Salons [d'Automne (1952), des Realites Nouvelles (1957), des Comparaisons (1976-78)], Avanguardia e Sperimentazione (Modena, Venice, 1978), the Biennale of Prints (Ljubljana, 1973-79) and Sao Paulo (1963) stand out. He died in Thessaloniki in 1994.