Today we went to the Jewish Museum in Athens.
87% of Greek Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
Friday 25 February 2011
Thursday 24 February 2011
The George Economou collection
The newly opened Municipal Art Gallery in Metaxourgio is a stunning place
The gallery is in the newly renovated old silk factory, in two buildings which are separated by a narrow paved courtyard, in stunning rooms
with the original ceilings
Louis Anquetin, Women at their Toilet
Egon Schiele, Naked Kneeling Man
Carry Hauser, In the Garden
Henry Moore, Autumn Storm
Ivan Klium, Two Heads
Le Corbusier, Couple
Nathan Altman, Blue Landscape
Carl Grossberg, Rokin Street (I love Rokin street, and looking at the picture made me feel I was there)
Marcel Duchamp, A Couple of Aprons
Tamara Lempicka, Reclining Nude
Lucien Freud, Study of a Head
Kathe Kollwitz, Chalk on Paper. (We did not manage to go to the Kathe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin and this is a regret, and one of the reasons why we have to go back. We managed to see the Kollwitz square however - as well as having a wonderful brunch there - and it is one of the nicest areas in the city and certainly worth another visit)
Pablo Picasso, Coloured Chalk on Paper
Vlasimir Malevitch, Violin
Georges Braque, SAO (in Greek as in picture)
Henri Marisse, Female Bust
As we were leaving the gallery, we found out that this is just a fraction of the George Economou collection (!) and that a second exhibition will be staged in March - we will certainly be there.
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Yannis Moralis
The Benaki Museum on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue has an exhibition of Yannis Moralis' preliminary drawings of some of the carvings and tiles that he designed for various public and private buildings. The huge carving on the side of the Hilton hotel was the first of a collaboration between artist and architects which spanned at least twenty years.
Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any photographs, except for the two panels outside the exhibition room. This panel was made for a bank in Kolonaki and was subsequently donated by the bank to the Benaki Museum.
Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any photographs, except for the two panels outside the exhibition room. This panel was made for a bank in Kolonaki and was subsequently donated by the bank to the Benaki Museum.
The artist is standing next to another panel in this photograph.
Detail.
Monday 21 February 2011
Flowers
Another look at Antonello - gorgeous displays again.
They even have vases with flowers on the pavement outside the shop now.
I love the combination of pink and lilac
Just white here which looks stunning with the green.
Sunday 20 February 2011
Scary!
A quiet stroll around Athens in Syntagma Square on a Sunday afternoon,
or so we thought...
but thankfully no tear gas...
err... yet!
Saturday 19 February 2011
Anna Karenina, Boris Eifman
At the Megaron Mousikes again last night
At the foyer before the start of the performance
I find the chandelliers that reach down two floors quite spectacular and never tire of them
The Alexandra Triante hall where the performance took place
Boris Eifman's Anna Karenina is highly spectacular, totally engrossing and great entertainment. The narrative is focused on Anna, Karenin and Vronsky and is expressed in a marriage of innovative choreography and terrific dancing. It is set to the music of Tchaikovsky.
A ballet with high emotional impact, a mix of classical ballet and modern dance.
Anna's breakdown at the end, danced in flesh coloured body tights, with flashing strobes, set to modern electronic music was so powerful it took my breath away. It was a mass of writhing bodies alternated with Anastasia Sitnikova writhing on the floor in a modern dance sequence - totally overwhelming. In the last scene she throws herself onto the stage in the midst of dancing railway workers who have transformed themselves into the train in front of which Anna finds her end - it is a staggering finale.
The staging and the lighting were equal to the terrific dancing. A production by the Eifman Ballet Theatre of St Petersburg not to be missed.
Monday 14 February 2011
Stella Bakatsi
We went to the Stella Bakatsi exhibition two weeks ago and I have been postponing writing about it as I felt that my photographs would not do it justice, but there is no sense in putting it off any longer... Bakatsi is a ceramicist who has moved away from making vessels to making small identical pieces which she then uses to stage huge installations. The exhibition I saw a few years ago was stunning, and I have been following her development ever since.
The rest of the exhibition is all around the room and consists of huge panels made of wire where small, mostly identical ceramic pieces are attached. It is difficult to describe the effect, sometimes when looking from a distance they look like abstract paintings, but most of the time, they just look like themselves and I cannot define them...
A close look
An overview
This exhibition was staged at the old observatory and the mobile of rocks and crystalls at the entrance is interesting and fun.
The main, domed observatory room is where the exhibition is housed, and the first thing you see is this huge installaion on the floor of thousands of used microbiological slides. She says she has always been interested in the world of Genetics and its constant revelations, in the cell, in the molecule...
The rest of the exhibition is all around the room and consists of huge panels made of wire where small, mostly identical ceramic pieces are attached. It is difficult to describe the effect, sometimes when looking from a distance they look like abstract paintings, but most of the time, they just look like themselves and I cannot define them...
A close look
An intricate pattern
and a closer look
I love the wavy effect of this one, seen partly from the side
These reminded me of swimming sperm
An overview
Floating sperm again, in a different pattern
Very tightly packed
So many different shapes and patterns she has used...
A lot of wire on this one
Another partial side view
A bit of colour
Spikey
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