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'Nikolaos Gyzis: the Great Painter' exhibition at the Theocharakis Foundation
"I cannot paint Greece as beautifully as I
feel it," Nikolaos Gyzis (1842-1901), one of Greece's most important 19th
century painters and the major representative of the so-called 'Munich School',
the major 19th century Greek art movement, had once humbly said.
Gyzis' multi-level artistic universe is unfolded in the exhibition "Nikolaos Gyzis: The Great Painter", at the B & M Theocharakis Foundation, which will be officially inaugurated by the President of the Republic on November 22.
The exhibition coincides with the 101st anniversary of the death of the great painter, who brought the eternal colors of his homeland to Munich.
The Foundation, in cooperation with the
Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki, presents a unique exhibition dedicated to
Nikolaos Gyzis, one of the most important representatives of the famous Munich School
with works from the much discussed donation of the Gyzis family to the
Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki.
The exhibition depicts the evolution of the great painter through the presentation of 120 works, many of which are from the Gyzis family's donation to the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki, enriched with works from the collections of the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutzos Museum, the National Bank, the Alpha Bank, the Averoff Museum, the Holy Panhellenic Foundation of Tinos, the Bank of Greece, the Athens Concert Hall, the Emfietzoglou Collection, the Marianna Latsis Collection and many other private collections.
The exhibition features major paintings and rare
oil paintings, drawings, sculptures and posters of the leading Greek painter of
the 19th century. The thematic sections include, among others, portraits and
scenes from the artist's family, religious and allegorical subjects,
ethnographic themes, landscapes and still lifes.
The exhibition also includes a display of a separate chapter in Gyzis' art, comprising posters, diplomas, medals and newspaper inserts, as well as drafts and micro-sculptures that reveal his constant and arduous trials and search in the field of art.
Born in 1842 in the village of Sklavohori on the island of Tinos, which has a long artistic history, Nikolaos Gyzis was considered a realist in his folk themes, an idealist in his allegorical themes and a symbolist in his religious themes, according to art historians who studied his work.
In 1850 his family settled in Athens, where he studied at the Athens School of Arts, where he was admitted at the age of 8(four years earlier than the admission age of 12) and developed his natural skill in painting, following the curriculum as an observer for the first four years and as a student after that until 1864.
In 1865 he spread his wings for Munich, where he won a scholarship to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, were he settled for the rest of his life, until his death
