Seascapes: from the Collection of the Bank of Greece
Sunday, July 17, 2022 - Saturday, September 24, 2022
A place that is our home, defines our history and our traditions, establishes the starting point of the origin and ideology of our identity, contributes to our survival and our ascent, the sea and its world have been and are still functioning as appealing visual stimuli for a multitude of artists.
The seascape paintings from the Bank of Greece Art Collection constitute distinct and representative versions of the rich rendition of marine topography, as this evolves alongside the course followed by Greek art from the mid-19th century to the modern era. Selected are works belonging to different thematic categories of seascape painting: the sea and the magnificence of nature, the coastal setting and human presence or activity, the sea in relation to historical events and war scenes, the life of native boatmen and fishermen, commercial action and voyaging distraction, the vital enjoyment of the sea experience for body and spirit.
It all starts with the skilled seascape painters of the 19th century –such as Ioannis Altamouras, Konstantinos Volanakis, Emilios Prossalentis, Vasileios Chatzis– with a productive interest in the time-honoured formalities in their depictions of places and events. Walking on into the 20th and, later on, into the 21st century, creators, such as Sophia Laskaridou, Periklis Vyzantios, Dimitrios Galanis, Konstantinos Maleas, Michael Axelos, Alexandros Korogiannakis, Paris Prekas, Thanassis Makris, Sotiris Sorogas, turn towards a different perception and visual recording of the atmosphere of the Greek sea and its variable elements.
Thanks to the expressive gift of art, multidimensional visions, individual characteristics, obvious and indiscernible correlations concerning the seascape emerge and illuminate as much the realistic and pragmatist image, as the lyrical and seductive sense of the sea experience.
Charis Kanellopoulou
Art historian, Scientific advisor