National Art Gallery description and photos - Greece: Athens (Topic)

National Art Gallery description and photos - Greece: Athens. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is National Art Gallery.

Photo and description

The National Gallery (the full official name is the National Gallery - Museum of Alexandros Sutsos) is an art museum in the city of Athens. This is one of the most interesting sights of the capital and one of the best museums in Greece.

The National Gallery was founded in 1900 and the basis of its collection is 258 pieces of art donated by the University of Athens and the National Technical University. A year later, 107 more works of art from the collection of Alexandros Sutsos became the property of the gallery. In 1954, the National Gallery officially merged with the Museum of Painting of Alexandros Sutsos, receiving its current name - National Gallery - Museum of Alexandros Sutsos.

Over time, the gallery's collection has grown significantly, including thanks to donations from private collectors, among which the most significant, perhaps, was the gift of Euripides Koutlidis in the form of an impressive collection of paintings by Greek artists of the 19-20th centuries. In 1976 the gallery settled in its own specially constructed building at Michalakopoulou, 1. In 2004, at the initiative of the gallery director Marina Lambraki-Plaka, the National Glyptotek of Greece was created, which became home to the collection of sculptures by Greek masters of the 19th and 21st centuries, previously presented within the walls of the National Gallery.

Today, the collection of the National Gallery includes over 20,000 works of art, from the post-Byzantine period to the present day. Most of the collection is the work of Greek artists, including Yannis Tsarukhis, Spyros Papaloukas, Yannis Moralis, Konstantinos Maleas, Nikolaos Gizis, and many other talented masters. However, it is worth noting that the gallery also presents a very impressive collection of works by European artists, including works by such eminent artists as El Greco, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, Ivan Aivazovsky, Jacob Jordaens, Auguste Rodin, Peter Rubens, Albrecht Durer, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and etc.

In addition to the permanent exhibition, the National Gallery regularly hosts temporary exhibitions, specialized lectures and seminars, as well as various cultural events. The gallery has its own research laboratories and an excellent library that houses unique archival materials.

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Topic: National Art Gallery description and photos - Greece: Athens.