Takis

Biographical Notes

Greek sculptor, born in Athens in 1925. Self-taught. Residing in Paris since 1954, Takis makes his first «signals» in 1955, inspired mainly by railway signaling. In 1959, he coincides with Jean Tinguely, Yves Klein and art gallery owner Iris Clert in the French capital, where he shows them his first magnetic sculptures called Télésculptures. The following year he presents an exhibition at the Iris Clert gallery that, at the same time, is also a performance, where he suspends a man in mid-air using magnetic force. In 1963 he opens with his magnetic walls and sculptures made from cathode tubes called Télélumières. In 1965 he presents his first musical sculptures and takes part in the main lumino kinetic expressions.

Takis has participated in many exhibitions around the world, of which two of the most outstanding are the one at the National Contemporary Art Center in Paris in 1972 and the one at the Jeu de Paume National Gallery in Paris in 1993.

Work

After learning to work with iron, Takis makes his first sculptures, which directly refer to antique sculptures and especially to Cycladic idols, with a combination of recovered mechanical elements, which he uses as a base, and other pieces he makes himself. Influenced by the world of machines and technology, the artist creates his first signals: bars used to support a series of colored, blinking light bulbs that he generally presents as a group. Takis is also inspired by electrical panels from computers, graduated quadrants and movable needles to create panels that reliably represent the world of the machine and its aesthetics. When the artist discovers magnetism, he goes on to make sculptures of a particular genre, made up of electromagnets attracting mechanical elements supported by strings and that, as a consequence, are suspended over the void. From his Télésculptures he moves on to man, leaving him suspended in mid-air during an exhibition that is, at the same time, a performance. Takis expands his work with magnetic walls and musical sculptures made of tensed metallic bodies, struck by another metallic element suspended thanks to electromagnetic attraction. His sculptures entitled Télélumières are created using cathode tubes that combine the organic shape of the tube filled with blue light with the presence of machinery. Takis has created an original universe, close to that of the artist-engineers and contemporary with the lumino kinetic movement.

Serge Lemoine

 

Magnetic polychromatic paint with keys on canvas

Pou(r) Erró Magnetic polychromatic paint with keys on canvas 2011 30 x 30 cm / 11,8 x 11,8 in.

Sans titre (2010), ferro, 88 x 82 x 85 cm

Sans titre (2010), iron, 88 x 82 x 85 cm