• born Tibieru Krausz in 1919 in Fagaras, Romania
• immigrated to Montréal, Québec in 1969
• attended Bucharest Academy of Fine Art from 1948-1950, taught there from 1950-1969

click on thumbnails at left to view larger images

Tibor Thomas's painting developed "in a manner balanced between the impressionist treatment of colour and the solid expressionist foundation of drawing and composition" (Irina Kozak, 1987). From 1950 to 1969, Thomas taught painting at the Bucharest Academy of Fine Art until his defection from communist Romania with his wife and artist son, Peter Krausz. Governmental restrictions in the form of social realism, coupled with his academic experiences in Romania deeply affected his early art production. These works are often "dark and brooding, the feelings carefully checked, but not extinguished, by tautly structured compositions." At this stage in his career, Thomas's preferred genre was still life in an almost intimate scale. As a Bucharest reviewer wrote in 1967 of his works: "The people, landscapes and objects become pictorial motifs of shapes and colours with implications of psychological expression" (Jacques Brutaru, quoted in Kozak, 1987). Since his arrival in Montréal in 1969, Thomas's canvases "speak eloquently of artistic fulfillment he has enjoyed in being at last free to paint as he chooses after the years of state-imposed restraint. They speak through his choice of subjects, their vivid colours and unobtrusive composition, always with the pervasive luminosity which has become his trademark" (John Meyer, 1997). Once in Canada, Thomas became interested in the problems involved in painting outdoors. The vastness and grandeur of the Canadian landscape and the extraordinary changes in colour produced by the seasons captivated him. In the 1970s Thomas's colours warmed and his paint thickened, creating a slather approach. From this period, he produced reddish brown images of east-end row housing which look organic as well as images of Verdun which became a topography of gray-blues. Later in the 1980s, his palette brightened further with azure blues flecked with gold and crimson. Water, one of Thomas's favourite subjects, became a dazzling, hallucinatory vision in many of his works. During this period, he made several trips to Europe which provided the subject matter for evocative images. Despite his apparent delight in colour and light, Thomas's portraits from the 1980s and 1990s retain a melancholic and introspective quality. An example is his image titled Andrea, of a young woman whose face, framed by brown hair, has a mournful expression to it. Another element of Thomas's style is the structural quality of his compositions, the solidity of his forms. Thomas's painting "can be compared to a structure, engraved like a solid material, complemented by a dramatic harmony softened at times by the suggestion of shadows." His style reflects meticulous study of his subject and reveals the artist's "personal vision in the process of transfiguring nature by endowing his expression with a lyrical tone" (Kozak, 1987).

Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec

Classique consultants
Breckenridge, Colorado

Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec

Maison de la culture, Vilnius, Lithuania

The Third Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

Italian Landscapes
ENIT, Montréal, Québec

La gala international des arts visuels
Bonsecours Market, Montréal, Québec

Centre Culturel Jacques-Ferron, Longueil, Québec

Pluralité
Galerie d'art L'Union-Vie, Drummondville, Québec

Galerie d'Isle, Montréal, Québec

Pluralité
Centre d'exposition de Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Québec

Le Musée régional de Kolin, Czech Republic

Galerie Pauline Johnson, Outremont, Québec

Festival International des Arts
Chappelle historique du Bon Pasteur, Montréal, Québec

La gala international des arts visuels
Montréal, Québec

Galerie Entre Candre, Montréal, Québec

Qui sont-elles? Qui sont-ils? II
Complexe Desjardins, Montréal, Québec

Qui sont-elles? Qui sont-ils?
Complexe Desjardins, Montréal, Québec

Galerie Pauline Johnson, Outremont, Québec

Still Lifes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec

Street Scenes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec

Canadian and European Masters
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montréal, Québec

Annual Exhibition
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec

Retrospective 1972-73
Centre d'art Mont Royal, Montréal, Québec

Exhibition of Portraits, Bucharest, Romania

International Exhibition of Young Artists
Warsaw, Poland

Romanian Fine Arts Exhibition
Peking, China

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---. Investir dans les oeuvres d'art. Montréal, Québec: Éditions François L. de Martigny, 1978.

Jianou, Ionel. Les artistes roumains en Occident. Los Angeles, California: American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1986.

Jahresweiser durch Alte und Neue Kunst. Berlin, Germany: Aufbau Verlag, 1960.

Kozak, Irina. T. K. Thomas. LaPrairie, Québec: Marcel Broquet, 1987.

Maîtres canadiens et européens. Montréal, Québec: A.D.V. Inc., 1983.

Meyer, John. "De l'impressionnisme, au réalisme, au postimpressionnisme: L'odyssée de Tibor K. Thomas." Magazinart 9, no. 4 (Summer 1997): 62-65.

Prete, Orelio T. "Pittori Contemporanei: Tiberio K. Thomas." Gran Mondo (July 1972): n.p.

Robert, Guy. L'art actuel au Québec. Montréal, Québec: Éditions Iconia, 1983.

Ulivi, Mario. "Tiberio K. Thomas - Pittore Canadese." Il Narciso (1972): n.p.