Born in Thessaly in 1923, Philolaos Tloupas is a Greek sculptor and draftsman. His creations, which oscillate between figuration and abstraction, bear witness to an inspiration from antiquity and a pronounced taste for the dreamlike. During his long career, he also collaborated on several architectural projects, notably with André Gomis. A multidisciplinary artist, he inherited his taste for materials from a carpenter father and a boilermaker grandfather. His arrival in Paris, where he settled permanently in 1950, had a great influence on his work. Philolaos attended Marcel Gimond’s studio at the Beaux-Arts and discovered metal work, which took a predominant place in his work.
Particularly active since 1958 in his workshop in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, where he drew the plans himself, Philolaos is the author of a multifaceted work. Known for his monumental creations in which the coldness of steel and concrete is found, he also produces figurative sculptures of small sizes. For these formats, he uses warmer materials such as terracotta and wood which allow him to create fantastic figures. In this dynamic he develops the “gogottes”, imaginary creatures to which he gives multiple faces between 1951 and 1967. These dreamed animals, he transposes them in his materials of predilection for the urban universe. You can admire them today in the Jardin des Gogottes in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.