El Greco`s masterpiece in Thessaloniki

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) “The Coronation of the Virgin,” one of the masterpieces painted by Doménicos Theotokópoulos, widely known as El Greco, is currently exhibited at the Teloglion Foundation of Art in Thessaloniki. 
The oil painting on canvas (57 x 79.3 cm), dates back to 1603-1605, the creative period of the artist. El Greco painted this masterpiece for the chapel of the Hospital de la Caridad near Todelo.
The painting was acquired by the Alexandros S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation in 2008 and is temporarily housed in the National Gallery until the completion of the “Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens.”
“The Coronation of the Virgin” will be on display at Teloglion Foundation until May, 2010.

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Greece: Images of an Enchanted Land

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)      Black and white images of Greece in the ‘50s, as seen through the lens of Robert McCabe, have been exhibited until January 31 at the Sit Down Gallery as part of the Month of Photography in Paris. Greece has changed dramatically since Robert McCabe took the pictures in this collection – also available in a relevant publication – some of them fifty years ago. Certain viewers – especially those who were also there at that time – might find McCabe’s photographs elegiac.  This is the Greece they remember, glazed in dazzling sunlight and now gone. However, the principal sensation they convey is pleasure. Greece, Images of an Enchanted Land: View the photos

The Art Collection of National Bank of Greece on Display

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   The exhibition “Greek Artists from the National Bank Collection” opened recently at the National Art Gallery-Museum Alexandros Soutzos (www.nationalgallery.gr), and reflects the taste and mentality of a number of National Bank governors over the years. “Immediately after the bank’s founding in 1841, art played a major role: it was institutional, with the governors’ portraits, it was ideological, with the promotion of the war of independence – still recent at that time – and it was also a matter of aesthetics, “said National Gallery director Marina Lambraki-Plaka. Portraits welcome visitors, and some are originals, but there are also digital prints because it was difficult to transfer the originals from the halls of the National Bank. The collection comprises 2,500 works in total, 200 of which are on display at the Gallery. The paintings range from art by Nikiforos Lytras to Constntinos Volonakis and from Alexis Akrithakis to Costas Tsoclis. The exhibition runs until March 22, 2009.  Kathimerini daily: Artistic treasury goes on display; National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET): Collections 

Thracian Art in Athens

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   The City of Athens Art Gallery in collaboration with the Foundation for the Art and the Tradition of Thrace (in Greek) presents a folk tradition exhibition at the Folk Art and Tradition Centre, in Athens, until June 30, 2009. The display presents handmade objects of daily life such as jewellery, pottery, tapestry or clothing from the region of Thrace; a region which is characterised by the diversity and the multiculturalism of its inhabitants. Ethnological Museum of Thrace: www.emthrace.org ; Thrace: The Land of Orpheus & Municipality of Xanthi 

A Tribute to the Greek Resistance at WWII

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  The exhibition “Tribute to the Greek Resistance, 1940-1944” will be presented in Memorial Leclerc – Museum Jean Moulin in Paris from October 1 to November 5, 2008. The exhibition is organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the National Gallery of Athens – Museum Alexandros Soutzos in the framework of the French presidency of the European Union. The event is under the aegis of the Greek Embassy in Paris. These works of art are to be presented to the French public for the very first time. These works of art were assembled after Milliex couple’s initiative: in 1945, Roger Milliex (1913-2006), scholar, writer and former director of the French Institute in Athens and his spouse, writer Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex (1920-2005) had asked French intellectuals and artists for an honourary donation to the Greek people and their heroic resistance during World War II, 1940-1944.   Foundation of the Hellenic World: Greece and the Second World War (1940-1945)

Modern Architecture in Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   In his article for The Times titled “Athens welcomes the ghost of Phidias to new rooftop gallery,” Marcus Binney reports that the new rooftop gallery built to display the Parthenon marbles is one of the most beautiful exhibition spaces in modern architecture. Besides the Parthenon friezes, the new museum will also display the superb sculpture from the outside of the temple with the statues of gods, horses and chariots from the end pediments and other famous sculptures, such as the female caryatids from the Erechtheion and friezes from the Temple of Athena Nike. Secretariat General of Information: World Media on Greece – Highlights; Athens Architecture: www.culture2000.tee.gr/

Greek Museums Online

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  As Kathimerini daily reports, more and more Greek museums are grabbing the opportunity to get active on the Internet. Well-known museums as well as some of the smaller ones abroad offer digital exhibitions especially curated for the Internet, overflowing with plenty of detailed information. Examples include the National Museum of Contemporary Art (www.emst.gr )  blog, which is celebrating its first birthday (http://fixit-emst.blogspot.com); the Benaki Museum (www.benaki.gr) is fluent in Spanish; the Museum of Cycladic Art (www.cycladic.gr) has gone on Facebook and the National Gallery (www.nationalgallery.gr) has redesigned its website, with information now available in Greek, English, French and German.

A Unique National Marine Park in Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    The Mediterranean Monk Seal also known as Monachus Monachus, is Europe’s most endangered marine mammal, and is among the six most endangered mammals in the world.  Greece has allocated a vast area for the preservation of the Monachus Monachus and its habitat in the Aegean Sea. The Greek National Sea Park of Alonissos – Northern Sporades(www.alonissos-park.gr), which extends around the Northern Sporades island complex, and is the main action ground of the Hellenic Society for the study and protection of the monk seal (Mom). It should be stated that legislation in Greece is very strict towards the hunting of the seal and that the public in general is very much aware and supportive of the effort for the preservation of the Monachus Monachus. The National Marine Park of Alonnisos – Northern Sporades was the first designated Marine Park in the country and is currently the largest marine protected area in Europe (approximately 2,260 Km2). Besides the sea area, the Park includes Alonnisos (www.alonissos.gr), six smaller islands (Peristera, Kyra Panagia, Gioura, Psathura, Piperi and Skantzoura), as well as 22 uninhabited islets and rocky outcrops. The Northern Sporades island-complex stretches out into the Aegean, east of the Pelion peninsula. On the serene Sporades, life still continues along its old rhythms. Tourism has brought prosperity to these islands without affecting much of their traditional lifestyle, especially on the island of Alonissos.  National Marine Park of Alonnisos – Northern Sporades: Photo Gallery