Costas Tsaras was born in Phthiotis in 1928. After graduating from the Athens School of Fine Arts, which engendered a socially conscious and political body of work developed under S. Papaloukas and G. Morali, Tsaras’ in-situ artistic education truly began in the 1960s, following a move to Paris where he would stay until 1971. In the French capital, he continued to study lithography at the École des beaux-arts in Paris under M. Briançon, E. Clairin. This period coincided with the artist’s encounter with the abstract currents of the Paris school and oriented him towards a non-figurative style of painting.
Back in Greece, the artist expressed himself with complete freedom, both through figuration and abstraction. The pictorial output of his period in Greece was inspired by historical events which shook modern Greece (dictatorship, civil war, occupation), as well as by his native village, Pelasgia (portraits, daily scenes, trees, village architecture and landscapes – in other words, the artist’s personal experiences).
Despite the creation of paintings which seem to easily group themselves together in series, the polymorphism of Tsaras’ pictorial language prevents the classification of his work in a particular current. The artist often chooses the technique in relation to the theme and adopts different artistic solutions, not only according to the theme, but also within the same thematic unit and in the space of a year, solutions always subject to his emotions. This explains his back and forth with respect to form and colour, as well as the use of recurring patterns. Although his compositions are sometimes based on line and sometimes on colour, Tsaras quickly displayed his predilection for colour set in simple geometric patterns or even exploded into spots. His work unites primitive arts, Greek art, Byzantine art, and modern European art. His art is symbolic and humanist, mixing sacred and profane, sentimental and political, martyrdom and popular, love for nature and for the human race. It is a free art, outside of any doctrine, which perfectly reflects the personality of the creator.
His sculptures, tall wooden columns, reveal a direct influence of African sculpture and affirm that his activities as a painter, sculptor and engraver were in constant dialogue and interaction. His engraving practice was highly systematic.
Tsaras presented his work in individual and group exhibitions. His works can be found at the National Library and at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and the Municipal Pinacothèque of Rhodes, among others. He illustrated books of neo-Hellenic and foreign poetry, Greek mythology by G. Gerali and painted the sets and costumes for the Oedipus King and Ajax tragedies at the Jonnesburg Civic Theater. He was also a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.
Tsaras passed away in 1986.
