Modeled Figure, 1958

Measuring almost 172 centimeters in height, the sculpture Modeled Figure by Joannis Avramidis (1922–2016) was created at a turning point in his oeuvre. Avramidis had been taken to Vienna in 1943 as a “foreign laborer”. He first studied painting (1945–1949) and then sculpture (1953–1956) at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. During a study trip to Paris in 1955, he came into contact with the latest tendencies in modern sculpture. Shortly after his return to Vienna, Avramidis started to base his sculptures on mathematical calculations. In his work Modeled Figure, however, he still pursued a traditional approach, creating the depiction of a fragmented man with an agitated surface. In 1962, the famous Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) praised the quality and drama of Avramidis’s works. Throughout the following decades, Avramidis designed a round temple in whose midst the Modeled Figure was to feature as a symbol for the measure of a new humanity.

Text Leopold Museum