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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

expanded images 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).

 

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

 

1990 International Gallery Invitational
Chicago, Illinois

Classique consultants
Breckenridge, Colorado

Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec

 

1989-85 Galerie Atelier J. Lukacs, Montréal, Québec

 

1987 Karney Daniels Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

Maison de la culture, Vilnius, Lithuania

 

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

 

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, 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

 

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

 

1995 Grands Illusions
Galerie Observatoire 4, Montréal, Québec

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

 

1990 Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec

Galerie Pauline Johnson, Outremont, Québec

 

1986 Molson Bicentennial Exhibition, Galerie Pauline Johnson, Montréal, Québec

Still Lifes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec

Street Scenes
Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal, Québec

 

1985-84 Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montréal, Québec

 

1984 Spring 1984
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec

1983 Galerie Alliance, Montréal, Québec

Canadian and European Masters
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montréal, Québec

Annual Exhibition
Centre d'exposition Brancusi, Montréal, Québec

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

 

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 Union

Exhibition of Portraits, Bucharest, Romania

 

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, Romania

International Exhibition of Young Artists
Warsaw, Poland

 

1954 Annual Art Exhibition
Bucharest, Romania

 

1953 International Exhibition of Young Artists
Bucharest, Romania

Romanian 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

 



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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