High volume
Design icon Philolaos Tloupas
As a child growing up in the countryside outside Paris, Yorgo Tloupas assumed everyone lived in a house like his. ‘It seemed normal,’ he recalls, strolling through his family home. ‘Then I went to a friend’s house, it was so weird! “Why do you have carpet and curtains? And why does your house look the same as the neighbour’s?”’
Tloupas’ house was unique because it was designed and built by his father, the Greek sculptor Philolaos Tloupas, known simply as Philolaos. Not only the walls, but practically every object came from the sculptor’s own hand, starting with the huge statue of former president Georges Pompidou that greets visitors at the gate. The place is a veritable museum (and a model of self-sufficiency), filled with Philolaos’ sculptures and paintings, his moulded concrete sofas, stainless-steel toilets, tables and chairs (including a concrete rocking chair that doubles as a fountain), a stainless-steel pizza oven resembling a squat round spaceship, stainless
steel bottles like Giorgio Morandi paintings, and wood and marble fruit bowls. Even the cutlery is homemade.
Yorgo stops at an intriguing metal contraption in the living room and unlocks its squeaky latch to reveal a television hidden inside. ‘This was to stop me from watching TV when I got back from school,’ he says.
It is one of more than 100 pieces (most from the family home) being shown at the Musée de Valence, in south-eastern France, as part of the country’s first ever museum retrospective dedicated to Philolaos. Julie Delmas, director of collections and exhibitions, notes that ‘Philolaos’ work encompassed the diversity of our daily lives.’ The museum is hosting the exhibition to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his most famous work, the Valence water towers, created in collaboration with architect André Gomis. ‘My dad did the shape and Gomis made it functional,’ says Yorgo, ‘so it’s basically a giant sculpture.’ Built of concrete and over 5om high, the two monoliths are like twisted blades that constantly change perspective as you move around them. In 1981, they won the Quartier de l’horloge award for France’s best urban art project of the 1970s.
Philolaos was born in 1923 in Greece, the son of a carpenter. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts before moving to Paris in 1950, where he took courses and worked as an artist, his output ranging from lead sculptures to iron furniture. In 1967, he bought a plot of land 40km away, in Saint-rémy-lès-chevreuse, then highly affordable, while teaching at a nearby art school, where he met his wife, Marina, also an artist. First he
The house is like a museum, filled with Philolaos’ creations
built an atelier, then later, in 1974 – the year Yorgo was born – he built the family house. He did both in a modernist style, in white concrete, tile and brick, and based on the Greek precept of the golden ratio. Large windows offer stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Though Philolaos passed away in 2010, Marina, age 82, still lives here, sleeping on the white wooden bed that he made. If the sculptor walked in today, he would find that nothing has changed.
Philolaos was wildly prolific. ‘He couldn’t spend a day without doing something,’ Yorgo says, fondly remembering the smell of welded metal in his atelier. The sculptor was best known for a wide variety of works in stainless steel, which he started using in the late 1950s. But he also made fantastical little terracotta animals, which he called ‘gogottes’, tactile paintings from turned wood, sculpted walkways from concrete aggregate, and sculptures out of lead and marble.
He benefited from the French law that all public construction projects invest one per cent of their budget into the installation of an artwork, earning the moniker ‘sculpteur des architectes’ by creating nearly 80 monumental sculptures, including three in the La Défense business district of Paris.
Yorgo, himself a successful graphic designer, remembers his father as a quiet man with a dry sense of humour, and says his career choice was part of an established tradition in his native country: ‘Glyptikí, or sculpture, is a job like any other in Greece.’ Philolaos had no gallery representation for most of his career – a personal choice. ‘It didn’t tempt him, he didn’t want to lose his freedom,’ says Marina, adding that he preferred the idea of his sculptures being in schools and gardens: ‘When people said “Children will touch them,” he answered, “So much the better, it will make them shine!”’ As a result, Philolaos did not establish his name in the same way a gallery might have.
In recent years, Marina, Yorgo, and his half-sister Isabelle have been working to increase awareness of the artist’s legacy, publishing catalogues and contributing works to exhibitions. Currently, they are negotiating a show with one of France’s best-known design galleries (which wishes to remain anonymous for now).
In 2013, the French auction house Piasa contacted the family, asking to hold an auction of Philolaos’ work. With a set designed by Noé Duchaufour-lawrance, the sale featured 58 lots, of which 95 per cent sold. Piasa’s contemporary and modern art specialist Laura Wilmotte Koufopandelis believes the value of his art will continue to rise. ‘It is quite varied, and in great quantity,’ she says. ‘He never stopped creating.’ Last September, Piasa auctioned a Philolaos stainless-steel screen from Karl Lagerfeld’s collection for €45,500.
The question remains of what will happen to such a unique house and its contents in the years to come. The family finds the idea of creating a foundation somewhat restrictive, but Marina admits she would love for Yorgo to take it over. In the meantime, she enjoys her husband’s work of a lifetime: ‘Being here, surrounded by his work, I am still with him.’ * ‘Philolaos (1923-2010)’, Musée de Valence, 1 December 20198 March 2020; museedevalence.fr; philolaos.fr
‘When people said, “Children will touch the sculptures,” he answered, “So much the better!”’