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Tibor K. Thomas
- 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).
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 |
World Beat
Montréal, Québec |
1997 |
Perfodium (performance
piece)
Café Campus, Montréal, Québec |
1996 |
Espace d'exposition du Conseil
de la peinture du Québec, Montréal, Québec |
1992 |
Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs,
Montréal, Québec |
1991 |
Institute of Art, Odessa, Texas Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec
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1990 |
International Gallery
Invitational
Chicago, IllinoisClassique consultants
Breckenridge, Colorado
Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec
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1989-85 |
Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs,
Montréal, Québec |
1987 |
Karney Daniels Gallery,
Toronto, Ontario Maison de la culture, Vilnius,
Lithuania
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1984-80 |
Galerie Claude Lafitte,
Montréal, Québec |
1984 |
Institut Polytechnique,
Irkutsk, USSR |
1983 |
Bigué-Osler Gallery, Toronto,
Ontario |
1982 |
Galerie Alliance Française,
Toronto, Ontario |
1981-79 |
Galerie Crescent, Montréal,
Québec |
1980 |
Longpré Gallery, Flintridge,
Los Angeles, California |
1980-86 |
Inter Art Gallery, Acapulco,
Mexico |
1977 |
Galerie Frederic B., Montréal,
Québec |
1975 |
Foyer des Arts, Montréal,
Québec |
1973 |
Galerie Benedeck-Grenier,
Québec, Québec The Third Gallery, Toronto,
Ontario
Italian Landscapes
ENIT, Montréal, Québec
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1972 |
International Burckhardt
Academy, Rome, Italy; Basel, Switzerland |
1972-71 |
Galerie François Paris,
Montréal, Québec |
1967 |
Magheru Gallery, Bucharest,
Romania |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1997 |
Art en Fête
Montréal, QuébecLa 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
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1996 |
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal,
Québec 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
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1995 |
Grands Illusions
Galerie Observatoire 4, Montréal, QuébecQui
sont-elles? Qui sont-ils?
Complexe Desjardins, Montréal, Québec
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1990 |
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal,
Québec Galerie Pauline Johnson, Outremont, Québec
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1986 |
Molson Bicentennial Exhibition,
Galerie Pauline Johnson, Montréal, Québec Still
Lifes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec
Street Scenes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec
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1985-84 |
Galerie Claude Lafitte,
Montréal, Québec |
1984 |
Spring 1984
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec
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1983 |
Galerie Alliance, Montréal,
Québec Canadian and European Masters
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montréal, Québec
Annual Exhibition
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec
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1982 |
Annual Exhibition
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montréal, Québec |
1981 |
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Laval,
Québec; Toronto, Ontario |
1973 |
Centre d'art Mont Royal,
Montréal, Québec Retrospective 1972-73
Centre d'art Mont Royal, Montréal, Québec
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1970 |
Five New Canadians
Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec |
1968 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1965 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1964 |
Centennial Exhibition
Academy of Fine Arts, Bucharest, Romania |
1963 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1961 |
Romanian Fine Arts
Exhibition
Moscow, Soviet UnionExhibition of Portraits,
Bucharest, Romania
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1960 |
Romanian Fine Arts
Exhibition
Prague, Czech Republic; Bratislava, Czech Republic; Berlin, Germany |
1959 |
Romanian Fine Arts
Exhibition
Budapest, Hungary; Minsk, Soviet Union; Belgrade, Yugoslavia |
1958 |
First Exhibition of the
Socialist Countries
Moscow, Soviet Union |
1957 |
Interregional Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1956 |
Romanian Fine Arts
Exhibition
Prague, Czech Republic; Warsaw, Poland |
1955 |
Interregional Exhibition
Bucharest, RomaniaInternational
Exhibition of Young Artists
Warsaw, Poland
|
1954 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1953 |
International Exhibition of
Young Artists
Bucharest, RomaniaRomanian Fine Arts
Exhibition
Peking, China
|
1952 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1950 |
Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania |
1948 |
Regional Exhibition
Brasov, Romania |
1946 |
Brasov, Romania |
COLLECTIONS
Académie internationale Burckhardt, Rome,
Italy
Alliance Française, Toronto, Ontario
Alliance-Vie Mutuelle, Montréal, Québec
Assemblée Nationale, Québec, Québec
Banque Nationale du Canada, Montréal, Québec
Canam-Manak, Montréal, Québec
Carlyle Group, Beverly Hills, California
Consultants Gest-Eau Fidutech, Montréal, Québec
Deak-Perera Inc., Toronto, Ontario
Galerie des Présidents, Québec, Québec
Hawker-Siddelly, Toronto, Ontario
Martex International, London, England
Molson, Montréal, Québec
Montréal Urban Community, Montréal, Québec
National Museum of Fine Arts, Bucharest, Hungary
Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruens, Louis. 30 peintres figuratifs
au Québec. Montréal, Québec: Éditions du Trécarré, 1985. ---. 52 couleurs du Québec . . . 52 peintres. Montréal,
Québec: Éditions la Palette, 1987.
---. 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.
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