New Book About Sculptor Joannis Avramidis Presented at Albertina Art Gallery

“Joannis Avramidis is indisputably the most important sculptor alive in Austria today” pointed out Klaus Albrecht, director of the renowned Albertina Art Gallery in his introductory speech on the occasion of a new book about the Greek-Austrian sculptor titled “Joannes Avramidis oder der Rythmus der Strenge” (trns. the Rythm of Strength).

The Gallery director presented Avramidis and his latest work to the Austrian audience. The book about Avramidis is authored by his contemporary Werner Hoffmann, Professor in the Fine Arts Academy of Vienna. The Gallery will be hosting Avramidi’s exhibition for the next couple of weeks.

Avramidis  represented Austria at the Venice Biennale in 1962 and was presented with the Austrian National Award in 1973.

Avramidis’ life and work are being depicted and praised respectively in the newly edited book. “Avant-garde Avramidis has brought ancient sculpture art into modern times and perspectives. “Modern art must be grateful to him for all his commitment and contribution” underlined Hoffman.

The internationally recognized sculptor was the son of Greek parents and grew up in Batumi, Georgia, where he studied at the Staatliche Kunstschule (1937–9). From 1939 to 1943 he was in Athens and in 1943 settled in Vienna. From 1945 to 1949 he studied painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna with Robin Andersen.

From 1953 to 1956, he studied sculpture with Fritz Wotruba. The starting-point of all Avramidis’s sculptures was the human body, reduced to the simplest possible elements of a column and sphere. The archaic character, influenced principally by ancient Greek sculpture, merged with the notion of absolute beauty, which manifests itself in forms of perfect rotundity.

Whilst dispensing with individual details, he created bodies of immaculately tranquil harmony, their shape characterized by the interaction between individual parts and an imposingly dominant monumental whole. These often took the form of clusters of columnar forms suggesting intimate crowds of figures.

From 1965 Avramidis held posts at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. In the 1980s the figural elements of his work became more pronounced, being marked by segmental lines. Apart from numerous one-man exhibitions, Avramidis participated in major international exhibitions.