Sculptor Evangelos Moustakas, best known for his statue of Alexander the Great and the monument to the National Resistance on the waterfront in Thessaloniki, has died at the age of 95.
He was born in Piraeus and from an early age showed his artistic and creative nature. His first professional employment was in a company that produced porcelain.
He studied sculpture at the National School of Fine Arts of Greece (1950-1953), under Professor Michalis Tombros, and continued his studies at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts (1960-1963) on a scholarship. He continued with studies in engraving and copper casting.
In 1963, he collaborated with the architect Walter Gropius in the production of decorative reliefs in the University of Baghdad.
He won various prizes, including the gold medal of the Alexandria Biennale (1968). He worked in art restoration as well as a secondary school teacher.
As his profile on the National Gallery states, “the axis of Vangelis Moustakas’s work is the human figure. Personal experience or social and historical events provide his points of reference. The product of free inspiration or public commissions, his work is characterized by diversity and blends elements of ancient Greek sculpture and contemporary styles as well as treating the void as an integral part of the sculpture.”