Private collection open to the public
When in the early 1990s the Greek businessman Prodromos Emfietzoglou acquired the famous painting «The Secret School» by late 19th century painter Nikolaos Gyzis in a Christie’s auction held in Athens, a private collection that was already more than 20 years old came to the public’s attention. Emfietzoglou – who bought the painting at the record price of 170 million drachmas (around 500,000 euros), outbidding the Greek state in the process – promised to make his newly acquired treasure accessible to all Greeks and sent the painting on a national tour. Two years after the Christie’s sale, Emfietzoglou began the construction of the premises that would put his collection of Greek art on public display. On 20 acres of the former Vorres estate in the Anavryta area of Maroussi, where the collector also lives, Emfietzoglou built a museum that now houses a substantial portion of the roughly 600 works in his collection. In 1999 the museum and outdoor area that host large sculptures (impressive works by artists like Yiannis Moralis, Chris Giannakos, Costas Varotsos and Costas Koulentianos) opened to the public, and the same year a catalog (in Greek and English) that documented the collection was also published. A second edition in English and Greek has just been released. Over 100 works have been added, including acquisitions up until 2004. Meanwhile, an expansion of the premises is also being planned. «The Emfietzoglou Collection: Modern and Contemporary Greek Art,» published by the collector himself, is a copious volume that follows the history of Greek art from the late 19th century to present times through the holdings of a private collection. The general structure is chronological, yet art historian Effi Strousa, author of the book’s essays and curator of the collection together with Eugenia Alexaki (Eta Moumtzidou is director the Emfietzoglou collection), groups artists within specific themes or formal characteristics that their works share, not in terms of their generation. In a chapter titled «New Approaches to Sculpture,» readers can learn about two artists who belong to different generations and use contrasting stylistic media: George Zongolopoulos, a pioneer of modern sculpture in Greece, and George Lappas, a younger but also innovative artist. Strousa has also placed the development of Greek art in the context of international movements in art and against the broader transformations of Greek society in areas such as politics or the art market. The book is a handy tool for specialists. Besides unraveling the contents of this specific collection, it includes rich documentation on each work. At the back of the book, there is a separate analysis of each work together with a list of the major publications and exhibitions in which each work appears. Also included is a separate chapter on artists’ biographies, composed by Eugenia Alexaki. Although the Emfietzoglou collection does not offer an exhaustive survey of Greek art and is not inclusive of all the big names in Greek art, it nevertheless manages to give a representative image of the course of Greek art over the last 150 years. Its broadness is what sets it apart from other private collections, which are either more specialized or include fewer names yet more works by each artist. The collection’s most distinctive aspect, however, is that it does not include non-Greek artists. Starting from the generation of the School of Munich in the late 19th century (such as Nikolaos Gyzis, Nikiforos Lytras and Constantinos Volanakis), it moves to early abstraction and the founders of modern art (such as Constantinos Parthenis, Spyros Papaloukas and Giorgos Bouzianis), through the 1930s Generation (such as Yiannis Moralis and Yiannis Tsarouchis), the «neo-avant garde» art of the 1970s, postmodernism and present-day art trends. With perhaps a couple of exceptions, emerging artists are not represented in the collection. A good portion is devoted to works by expatriate Greek artists. In Strousa’s essays these artists are all considered part of the history of Greek art. They include Thodoros Stamos, Jean Xceron, Lucas Samaras, Stephen Antonakos, Chryssa and Constantin Xenakis. Using diversity and a broad scope as his criteria, Emfietzoglou seems to be driven by an urge to document Greek art as fully as possible. Visitors to the museum will find that the presentation of the collection changes each year, allowing for a different perspective on Greek art. Both the collection and its permanent exhibition are projects in process. This is how the works should be seen and evaluated – as the vision of an important Greek collector, a man who has shunned the media and kept a sense of autonomy and a low profile, yet is eager to share his acquisitions with the public. The Emfietzoglou collection is open on Wednesdays 4-8 p.m. and Tuesdays 10 a.m – 2 p.m. Entrance is free. Guided tours for primary and secondary school students and educational programs are available. For more information call 210.829.7100.
