National Gallery (Athens)
The National Gallery ( Greek Εθνική Πινακοθήκη-Μουσείο Αλεξάνδρου Σούτζου ) in Athens was founded in its current form in 1976. Its predecessor was the collection of the municipal art gallery from the early 19th century , which was expanded under Georgios Jakobides . Today the collection houses around 9500 works of art.
history
As early as 1834, King Otto planned the establishment of an art gallery in Athens. A lack of funds did not allow the construction of a building, but an officer, the architect Friedrich von Zentner, was able to set up a collection on behalf of the king. Numerous donations followed, mainly from families in Athens, so that the collection grew to 117 paintings by 1878. These were provisionally issued in the Politechneio. In 1896, Andreas Soutsos donated the amount of 3 million drachmas to build a picture gallery, which has been nicknamed since then. After the Second World War, funds were again lacking, so that the director Maronis Kalligas was able to use the budget from 1949 almost exclusively for the maintenance of the building. All employees worked on a voluntary basis, with the small surplus only two works of art could be bought, one by Iatras and one by Volonakis, whose value had multiplied in 20 years. The donation of contemporary French art by the French cultural institute, including works by Braque, Bonnard, Gimond, Laurens, Matisse, Marquet and Picasso, was of great importance.
The building of the former National Gallery now houses the municipal gallery, while the National Gallery has moved into a new building since the late 1960s.
The 1999–2000 exhibition El Greco - Identity and Transformation was opened in the presence of the Spanish royal couple and was one of the most successful exhibitions worldwide with 630,000 visitors.
The Nationalgalerie gives three young artists the opportunity to exhibit and also finances the catalog.
Art theft on January 9, 2012
On the morning of January 9, 2012 at 5:00 a.m., pictures by Piet Mondrian , Pablo Picasso and Guglielmo Caccia (1568–1625) were stolen. The gang was apparently well organized and had triggered several false alarms prior to the robbery
Collections
19th and 20th century collection
The focus of the collection is naturally on the art of Greece from the 19th and 20th centuries. The so-called Athens School around Georgios Jakobides is represented with works by Nikiphoros Lytras , Nikolaus Gysis , Konstantinos Volanakis and others. Works by modern artists such as Lucas Samaras are also on display.
The international collection is smaller, but with works by Eugène Delacroix , Auguste Rodin , Albert Marquet , Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso, among others , also very high-quality.
European Renaissance Painting
Due to the late independence of Greece only in the 19th century, there were no collections that could have been linked to. Nevertheless it was possible to put together a respectable collection of paintings; it shows some gaps, but these are filled in with etchings and drawings. Works from that time are shown u. a. by Lorenzo Veneziano (1357–1379), El Greco , Jacob Jordaens , Luca Giordano and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo .
Branches
She now operates five branches: the Nationale Glyptothek sculpture museum near the Katehaki metro station in Sparta , Corfu , Nafplio and the former studio of Christos Kapralos on Aegina .
See also
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Stolen works by Picasso and Mondrian
- ↑ Work by Picasso stolen from the Greek National Gallery ( Memento from December 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
Coordinates: 37 ° 58 ′ 32 " N , 23 ° 44 ′ 58" E