National Gallery (Athens)
The National Gallery (Greek Εθνική Πινακοθήκη - Μουσείο Αλεξάνδρου Σούτζου ) in Athens was founded in its present form in 1976. Predecessor was the developed under Georgios Jakobides collection of the Municipal Art Gallery in the early 19th century. Today, the collection includes about 9,500 works of art.
- 2.1 Collection of 19th and 20th century
- 2.2 European Renaissance painting
- 5.1 Notes and references
History
Already in 1834 was planned by King Otto the founding an art gallery in Athens. Lack of funds not allowed the construction of a building, but was an officer, the architect Friedrich von Zentner commissioned by the king to create a collection. It was followed by numerous donations, especially of Athenian families, allowing the collection to 1878 grew to 117 paintings. These were provisionally issued in Politechneio. Andreas Soutsos donated in 1896 to the amount of 3 million drachmas to build a picture gallery, which bares his name as a nickname. After the Second World War again lacked funds, so that the director Maronis Kalligas the budget of 1949 was almost exclusively used only for maintenance of the building. All employees maintain an honorary capacity, by the small excess could just two works of art are bought, the work of Iatras and one of Volonakis whose value had multiplied over 20 years. Of great significance was the donation at the time of contemporary French art by the French Cultural Institute, including works by Braque, Bonnard, Gimond, Laurens, Matisse, Marquet, and Picasso.
The building of the former National Gallery today houses the Municipal Gallery, while the National Gallery has moved to a new building since the late 1960s.
The exhibition shown 1999-2000 El Greco - Identity and Transformation was opened in the presence of the Spanish royal couple, and was, with 630,000 visitors one of the most successful exhibitions worldwide.
The National Gallery are three young artists the opportunity to exhibit in the year and also funded the catalog.
Art theft 9 January 2012
On the morning of January 9, 2012 pictures of Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Guglielmo Caccia ( 1568-1625 ) are at 5.00 clock stolen. The gang was well organized and had caused several false alarms before the robbery
Collections
Collection of 19th and 20th century
Focus of the collection is naturally the Greek Art of the 19th and 20th centuries. The so-called Athenian school by Georgios Jakobides is represented with works by Nikiphoros Lytras, Nicholas Gysi, Konstantinos Volanakis and others. Furthermore, exhibited works by modern artists such as Lucas Samaras.
The international collection is small but works, among others, Eugene Delacroix, Auguste Rodin, Albert Marquet, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso also quite high-profile.
European Renaissance painting
Due to the independence of Greece in the 19th century, there were no collections of previously could be attached. However, it also succeeded on the field together a respectable collection, it has some gaps, but which are filled with etchings and drawings. From that time works will be shown, among other things. by Lorenzo Veneziano (1357-1379), El Greco, Jacob Jordaens, Luca Giordano and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Branches
She now has five branches: the National Sculpture Museum Glyptothek near the Metro station Katehaki, in Sparta, Corfu, Nafplio and the former studio of Christos Kapralos on Aegina.