MUNICIPAL ART GALLERY “ALEKOS KONTOPOULOS”

“Alekos Kontopoulos” Municipal Art Gallery of Lamia was founded in 1984 in the building at 6-8 on Ainianon Street in Lamia town centre, where the Historical Town Archive, the Library and the City Council Hall are also housed. It belongs to the Lamia Municipality and got its name in honour of the Lamian artist Alekos Kontopoulos (1904 -1974).

The collection of Lamia Art Gallery includes 144 works and drawings by Alekos Kontopoulos, as well as a series of unique ceramics plates painted with acrylics.

The works of the permanent collection are representative of all the artistic phases from which the artist passed through in his attempt to form his own personal style of painting, and in them the spiritual adventure of a restless artist, who was not satisfied with his achievements of academic painting alone, but tried to express the spirit of his era seeking passionate spirituality and sincerity in his work.

Briefly, the Lamia Art Gallery collection includes:

  • Early works, from the period of his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts, (1923-1929)
  • From the period of his apprenticeship at the Colarossi and Grande Chaumière Academies in Paris (1930-1934)
  • Works different from each other that reveal the influence of post-war artistic tendencies on the work of Kontopoulos with the rapid dominance of Modernism (1934-1950)
  • Works and drawings, from the time of the conquest of the Removal, (1950 onwards)
  • Works and designs influenced by his long-term tenure at the National Archaeological Museum, as a museum artist, (1941-1962)

Since 1950, Alekos Kontopoulos has been recognized internationally as one of the pioneers of abstract writing. He has been described by art historians as a “poet painter” and “painter of the new humanism” because he strives through Art to find the lost balance and to be led back to the springs of magic that man contains in his heart and in his deeper nature. Art is not the means of spreading and enforcing theories and ideologies. It is of value by itself and suggests to man the creative rhythm, the pausing of thoughtful thinking in front of the senses and mystery.

Simultaneous anniversaries, celebrating both the 100th anniversary since the birth of the artist Alekos Kontopoulos (1904-1974) and the 20th anniversary since the foundation of Lamia Municipal Art Gallery (1984) which was re-opened after refurbishment on the 23rd of October 2004. It is the permanent exhibition of works by Alekos Kontopoulos in the main hall and his design project is presented in the middle hall of Lamia Municipal Art Gallery.

The permanent exhibition fulfills the ethical and conventional obligation of Lamia Municipality in memory of the artist, who loved and honoured his home town of Lamia.

At the same time, it gives the city the privilege to participate actively in modern culture, in the field of art and motivated like a springboard, the remarkable collection of this permanent exhibition, which constantly marks the continuity and truth of art and expression. The city's functions are revitalized through this offering of art, empowering the achievement of the citizens' well-being, which is the very purpose of the city and of life in society.

Lamia Municipal Art Gallery organizes exhibitions periodically in cooperation with others such as the Union of Greek Engravers, the School of Fine Arts and Athens Municipal Art Gallery etc. They also take students on organized, guided visits of the area and since September have been performing their first educational programme in art history based on Alekos Kontopoulos’s works.

 

 

 

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