Apartis whose father was a tailor was born in Smyrne on October 24 th 1899. In Greece he studied with an Armenien sculptor named Papazian and learnt to draw with the painter Ithalissios. As a young man, like many young artists from all over the world he went to live in france and study in Paris which was at that time the capital of art.
He began studying in the the Julian Academy, which he didn't like very much and also at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris from 1919 onwards. His teachers were Paul Landdowsky and Henri Bouchard who both won awards at the villa Médicis in Rome.
It was during his first participation in the Autumn Salon of 1921 that the sculptor met the person who would later become his Master Emile Antoine Bourdelle who invited him to follow the sculpture lessons that he gave in the Grand Chaumière Academy in Montparnasse.�
Apartis was the first greek sculptor to work with Bourdelle who very much admired greek art. The two men became very friendly and called Apartis affectionably "mon Phidias". He supported his pupil and had high hopes for him, placing him above all the other living greeks whose work was known to him.��
During these years of apprentiship spent in Montparnasse, he mixed with Alberto Giacometti, Germaine Richier, Takashi Shimidzu, Costi Papazchristopoulos, Bella Raftopoulou, Georgios Kastriotis, Pablo Curatella Manes, Josefia de Vasconcellos, Angela Gregory, Otto Gutfreund, Bror Hjorth, René Iché, Raoul Josset, Emile Lahner, Aristide Maillol, Vadym Meller, Bencho Obreshkov, Maria Elena Vieira da Silva, Helen Wilson and Theodors Zalkans.�
Bourdelle was the founder and the vice-President of the first Salon des Tuileries in 1923. He introduced Apartis who exhibited that yaer two heads and a young athlete.�
The diversity of Athanase Apartis's artistic knowxledge was influenced doubly by the Ancient and Classical Greece which he rediscovered in the Louvre Museum, and also by the french sculpture from the middle Ages as taught by Bourdelle.�
The Master taught Apartis above all to be sever in his work. He taught him that the interior form must show at the exterior. The young sculptor was also inspired by Rodin, notably in certain portraits which combined both psychology and realism.
He became well known for his sensitive and realistic rendering of these portraits and at the same time for his ability to unveil the individual character of the� model. Apartis used, as iconographic models the "bas-reliefs of the front of the Champs Elysées Theatre" which was completed in 1912.�
From the beginnig he worked in the standing figures as the model seemed to be directly inspired by Antiquity: contrapposto, Greek iconography (Prométhée who personified the river). From then on the greek sculptor became well know to the french and as his success grew he received both public and private orders. He exhibited his work in the Autumn Salons from 1921 until 1938, the Salons of the Independant artists from 1926 until 1937 and in the Tuileries Salons from 1923 until 1931, as well as in the Petit Palais in Paris.�
He continued to study with Bourdelle until 1926. In 1929 Athanase Apartis visited Italy. In Florence he admired the work of Titien, Giotto and Tintoretto. He said that he was disappointed by Michel-Angelo however he could'nt explain the reason why.�
In the italians works of art he love their simplicity, sobriety and humanity. He believes "that they are composed of everything vital to a free temperament".�
Apartius considered that "only in Paris can one think, sculpte and create". He therefore stayed in contact with France during the whole period of his career.
In October 6 th of the same year Apartis was chosen to represent the pupils of the Grande Chaumière Academy in order to pay tribute to Emile Antoine Bourdelle at his burried.�
In 1939 he was named Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and the French State bought "La femme à l'Enfant" which is now conserved in the Georges Pompidou Museum.�
He returned to live in Athens in 1940 where he continued an active life.
He received many orders, both private and public, namely the "Monument aux Marins Inconnus" in Khios, the "Buste de l'Archevêque Chrysostome" in Salonique, the "Buste de Kazantzakis" in Crète and yet again the composer Mitropoulos in Athens.
In Greece he became an art Master and teach sculpture. for two years in succession, in 1959 and 1961, he was named drawing teacher in the Institut of Technology in Athens and sculpture teacher at the Beaux-Arts School of Athens.�
In 1960 Athanase Apartis received the highest distinction from the greek gouvernment, the Order of the Phoenix. In 1967 he was elected� correpondent member of the Sculpture department at the French Academy of Beaux-Arts.�
Apartis died in 1972 at tyhe age of 73. He is often considered to be the best greek sculptor of his generation. Despite his renown in Greece he's relatively unknown to the french public although his original and sensitive works of arts really represented the spirit of his time.
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