Tony Torrilhon  (Melon 27-09-1931 -

Graphic artist and printmaker. Son (second from 7 children) of an engineer. He studied medicine at the “Lycee Louis-le-Grand” in Paris starting in 1949, with a focus on pathology. Received his Summa cum Laude in 1957 with a thesis describing pathology in the paintings of Pieter Breughel the Elder. He took secondary art classes in drawing and printmaking at this time, and in the mid 1950s he participated in group shows at the Benezit Gallery in Paris as well as a traveling exhibition in 1958 that went from Paris to Geneva, Switzerland to Houston, Texas.

After his military service in Algeria as a field doctor from 1958 to 1960, he returned to school with the intent of learning printmaking. He attended the “Academia delle Belle Arti” in Florence, IT, in 1961 before relocating to Germany, where he attended the “Hochschule der Kunste”. He exhibited at the “Artisti Stranieri in Firenze” exhibitions of 1964, '65, and '69. He briefly returned to Paris in 1972 on an internship to the Ecole Boule, furthering his studies. He participated in several major exhibitions of copperplate engravings in West Berlin in the late 1970s, with the theme of political freedom, including the Free Berlin Art Exhibition in 1975.

By the early 1980s he began incorporating more wooden sculpture into his oeuvre and accepted several commissions from private and public institutions. He continued to exhibit frequently throughout Europe. In 2001 a retrospective of his work was held in Berlin. In 2007 he received a major commission for a sculpture at the Rheinsberg bulwark, "Hand mit Stein” (Hand with Stone).