A unique gathering of three artists who are coming together to complement and simultaneously renew the major exhibition “Art – Diagonios and the Museum That Never Was” is currently being prepared at the Teloglion Foundation of Arts at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The new exhibition, entitled “Manoussakis, Piteris, Tsatsagias: Three Artists from the Museum That Never Was,” will feature paintings by the three artists, essentially reconstructing the more mature side of the current exhibition and contributing to a surprising dialogue, as they boldly penetrate the past and the present, with elements from the creative process of artists from Northern Greece and beyond.

Soula Piteri, Fragkogiannou, 1977, oil, 118.5×65 cm. Soula Piteri Collection

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:00 p.m., by the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Stelios Angeloudis, and is under the general responsibility of Associate Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and General Director of the Teloglion Foundation, Alexandra Goulaki Voutyra. The exhibition is co-curated by Miguel F. Belmonte and Annareta Touloumtzidou, with the support of curators Rafaela Nika and Nikos Vianas.

According to Ms. Goulaki – Voutyra, “in the new exhibition we hear the ‘voice’ of three artists from the ‘Diagonios’ group, we see a sample of the work of three different personalities in the visual arts, whom we did not have the opportunity to get closer to in the large exhibition.” She points out that with the exhibition “Manousakis, Piteris, Tsatsagias: Three Artists from the Museum That Never Was,” we discover a network of relationships in the intellectual sphere of the other Greece, the periphery, but also their significance in the field of Greek art, a contribution that should not be lost to oblivion.”

Michalis Manousakis, Reflection, 1975, oil on canvas, 58×32 cm. Collection of Konstantinos Manousakis

Michalis Manoussakis: the early creative period of an important contemporary artist and teacher who found himself doing his military service in Thessaloniki, in the Third Army Corps: A. Zabetoglou took him into his studio, introduced him to Dinos Christianopoulos, the first encouragement and the beginning of a lasting friendship, the roots of his later work.

Soula Piteri: a beautiful young woman meets Dinos Christianopoulos in her early days, encourages and admires her, shares her concerns about life with him. In the 1970s and 1980s, she participates in exhibitions of the “Diagonios” art group, her only solo exhibition reveals her dynamic gaze, her distinctive, bold personality, with works that place her alongside militant artists such as Semertzidis, Tassos, and Katrakis during the post-dictatorship era.

Michalis Manoussakis, Portrait, 1977, oil, 46.2×30.2 cm. Donated by Dinos Christianopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Library & Information Center. Exhibited in a group exhibition of Thessaloniki artists at the Small Gallery DIAGONIO (14/11-10/12/1977)

Yannis Tsatsagias: A self-taught artist whose career inspires humanity, endurance, perseverance, and affirmation of life. An actor in bouzouki bands, a greengrocer, a poet, a philosopher, a kiosk owner, he introduces us to “the weight of lightness” with only a “black pen” as his tool, developing with it a skillful technique to compensate for the practical difficulties of charcoal, when he renders with “photographic” precision themes that comment experientially on his world. Forty years later, a gifted young artist from Drama, Giorgos Taxidis, wins the space with the charcoal that Tsatsagias was forced to reject, in the same aesthetic of recording values and inner warmth.

Giannis Tsatsagias, Romeo and Juliet, 2011, ballpoint pen, 13.8×18.3 cm. Yannis Tsatsagias Collection

The new exhibition at the Teloglion Foundation will host a total of 48 works by the three artists and will run until May 18, which is International Museum Day.