Municipal Gallery of Athens
The Municipal Gallery (Greek Δημοτική Πινακοθήκη της Αθήνας ) is an art museum in Athens. Today's location is the former silk factory on Avdi Square, which is also the namesake of the neighborhood Metaxourgio.
History
In 1914, the establishment of a municipal art collection was formally decided, although the first initiatives date back to the 19th century. 1923, the institution was finally established and in the same year began the purchase of the first works of art. Another institution, the governmental National Gallery was founded in 1976, which henceforth assumed the role of the largest art collection in Athens.
1982 pulled the Municipal Gallery of Athens in the former building of the municipal orphanage, which had been designed in the 19th century by Panagiotis Kalkos. Safety requirements and lack of space made the museum to create there, so that a move was vital. It was decided to move the Municipal Gallery in the former silk factory to allow permanent and changing exhibitions simultaneously. The new gallery has existed since October 27, 2010 in two buildings of 1500 m².
The first exhibition in the new building is dedicated to a private collection, the young collection of the shipowner George Economou, which was started in 2006. Their focus is primarily on the art of the 20th century, with works by Matisse, Picasso and Hockney.
Collection
The collection includes works from the 19th century by Spyros Prosalendis, Dionysios Tsokos and others, as well as works by Georgios Jakobides, Angelos Giallinas, Vincent Bokatsiampi, Nikiphoros Lytras, Yorgos Busianis, Agenor Asteriadis, Yannis Moralis and Gerasimos Steris. Contemporary art is represented by over 3,000 works by artists such Opi Zouni, Chronis Botsoglou and Makis Theofylaktopoulos.
An important part of the collection is a series of engravings by Angelos Theodoropoulos, Efthimis Papadimitriou, John Kefallinos, Vaso Katraki and Vicky Tsalamata.
The present building
The building, which was originally designed as a department store was in its almost 170 -year history, but instead used as a factory, barracks and hospital and stood over longer periods of time empty.
The former factory was designed in 1833 by Danish architect Hans Christian Hansen, who worked in Athens together with his younger brother by ten years Theophil Hansen at that time. The Hansens were originally due to studies of ancient and Byzantine buildings in Athens, established themselves successfully as architects and designed, among other things, the observatory, the Zappeion and the Hotel Grande Bretagne. However, they were known primarily by the Athens Trilogy consisting of the University, Academy and National Library. Theophil Hansen left Athens, as permanently brought him Georg Simon von Sina to Vienna, where he achieved his international breakthrough.
The factory building was built from 1834 to 1835 to be a department store on the European model. It was empty but from 1835 to 1852. 1852 was bought by an Austrian company that wanted to do it for the first steam-powered silk factory. However, it was never taken as a result of bankruptcy of the company in operation. In 1854, it served as a hospital. In the same year the company was founded Siriki who used the building from 1855 to 1875 as a silk factory (Greek Metaxourgio ). It was the largest production facility in Greece and the Balkans. 1875 had to stop production because of competition cheaper silk imports from China are set.
Between 1892 and 1904, had the construction of roads and Germanikou Giatrakou the destruction of the road facing part of the building and its Northeast sector could result. During the same period settled on the ground floor shops and first floor residents and 1960, the northeastern part has been reconstructed. In 1944 it was used as barracks for the ELAS, after a fire in 1960 and 1993 were some of the shops and apartments empty. 1993 donated the grandson of the owner of the building of the city of Athens.