Upcoming summer exhibitions
As summer approaches, the urban «gallery season» is coming to an end and the visual arts scene is becoming scantier in the city but richer in the periphery. One of the highlights of the exhibitions that are coming up is «Georges Braque: Order and Emotion» at the Basil and Elise Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art in Andros. The exhibition, which is the first of the artist’s work in Greece, covers the great cubist artist’s entire oeuvre, from this first Fauve-like paintings to his famous cubist compositions, his melancholy themes of the ’30s and the grandiose paintings of the ’50s. A total of 150 works (oil paintings, works on paper, sculptures, prints and ceramics) have been gathered from various museum, gallery and private collections: among them the Maeght family, the Centre Pompidou and the Picasso Museum. A round-table discussion which will take place on the occasion of the exhibition’s opening at the end of June will address the issue of myths in the art of the 20th century, particularly in respect to the work of Braque and his Greek-inspired work of the ’30s. Another exhibition, also on the periphery, is themed after the spirit of athleticism and the Olympic Games. Mostly commissioned for the exhibition, the works are by a host of contemporary Greek artists, such as Michalis Manousakis, Dimitris Antonitsis and Yiannis Psychopedis. The exhibition will open at the Municipal Center of Hania in early July, will shift to THessaloniki’s State Museum of Contemporary Art in the fall, and subsequently will tour other cities in the periphery such as Volos and Patras. Its final stop, in Athens, will coincide with the Olympic Games. The Skopelos Center of Photography is another venue that organizes a large event each summer. This year, the photography exhibitions that it will host will show works by international and Greek photographers on the theme of «Globalization.» The Rethymnon Center of Contemporary Art is yet another steady summer spot for the visual arts. It currently features the show «I, Me, Myself,» a grouping of works from the entire 20th century selected by Eleni Kypraiou, director of the established Nees Morfes gallery in Athens. Tinted by an autobiographical mood, the exhibition features an interesting juxtaposition of differently styled paintings. The show will run through July 30. Though the above exhibitions indicate that most of the visual arts scene will move out of Athens for the summer, an exhibition on the renowned photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson that will open at the end of June at the Benaki Museum marks an alluring cultural event for the city. «The Europeans» is a touring exhibition that consists of images that Bresson has taken of Europe from the ’50s to the present. The exhibition will run through the summer.
