Date/Time
02/11/2023 - 21/01/2024
10:00 - 18:00

Location
B&M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music

Spanning almost 100 years, the Bank of Greece Art Collection is one of the most acclaimed clusters of Greek art, thanks to the historicity of many of its items and its engagement in interesting contemporary art. Already since its establishment in 1928, the Bank has been harvesting works that are significant for their style and denotation, sprawling consecutive art periods. The Collection has thus become distinct for its coherence and theme, following a thread that originates in the dawning of modern Greek art and culminates in contemporary

artistic creation.

A main concern in building the Collection has been that the narrative composed from different aspects of modern Greek art is always amplified, in tandem with its “personality”: Firstly, the fact that it is a collection of paintings, prints and sculptures, with a strong core of 19th century art and a relentless eye on its worthy continuity in the 20th and the 21st centuries. Secondly, that it gravitates towards descriptiveness; being continuously enriched with selections of modern and contemporary works, however, it has come to also encompass other expressions of figurative language in a fertile way. Thirdly, that both older acquisitions and new additions orbit around some common themes, providing the lens for a study of traditional and newer approaches of the artworks

over time.

With the above in mind, 70 pieces of art from the Collection reach out to art lovers at the exhibition taking place in Theocharakis Foundation, in the hope that their first-ever parallel viewing will prompt an open and creative dialogue. The exhibition includes three sections entitled, respectively, “Places and Spaces”, “Myths and People”, “The Dynamics of ‘Ellipsis’”. Each one incorporates smaller “cycles of viewing”, wherein modern or contemporary artworks of the Collection find themselves side by side with historical pieces, thus shedding light on the connections, parallelisms, variations, interesting contrasts, and interpretations that emerge.

The “cycles” contain sometimes obvious and sometimes unexpected thematic and stylistic duos or mini groups of works, perhaps created in different eras, but resulting from similar pursuits. Each “conversation” brings to the fore relations formed either as a result of building upon the heritage of previous artists or as a consequence of the will to break free from it and move towards innovative directions. In this way, they reveal that every stimulus, be it from the surroundings or the imagination, and of course the artworks per se—in terms of their subject matter, ideas and forms—can function as a point of inspiration, a frame of reference or redefinition for the artists. In the end, this parallel viewing documents the innumerable ways in which the artists appose, absorb or dismiss images and doctrines of the past, how they move along the long stretch of history, and how they envelop, in their own time, both past and future.

Curator: Charis Kanellopoulou

Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 10:00-18:00, Thursday 10:00-20:00

Duration: till January 21, 2024

Admission: 8€, 5€

Book your ticket here

Opening reception sponsor