The Ministry of Culture and the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum are organizing an exhibition entitled Sea, breath of life, with which the restored space of the old Customs House is inaugurated and handed over to the city of Nafplio.

Alekos Fassianos (1935-2022)
The Fisherman, 2000
Original multiple, 80.3 x 56.7 cm
Donated by the artist
National Gallery of Greece and Alexandros Soutsos Museum
inv. no 11528

Based on the exhibition that preceded it and was hosted at the UN buildings in New York in the framework of the Greek Presidency of the Security Council, the present curatorial approach is enriched with new works according to the concept of the Art Historian, curator of the Nafplio branch, Lambrini Karakourtis – Orfanopoulou, in collaboration with the Director of Collections, Artistic and Museum Planning, Efi Agathonikos.

Kostas Tsoclis (1930)
Seascape, 1979
Oil on canvas and wood, 80.7 x 103 cm
National Gallery of Greece and Alexandros Soutsos Museum
inv. no 5897

Visitors and residents of the city of Nafplio will have the opportunity to get to know, through the works of Greek painters with a varied expressive language, one of the most characteristic manifestations of modern Greek art: seascapes. The sea, directly linked to the life of the Greek people, their memories and experiences, is a source of inspiration and artistic creation from antiquity to the modern era. The port is quickly becoming part of the themes of our marine painters, as the centre of everyday life, as a place of prosperity and trade, as an ‘index’ of the culture and material culture of societies.

Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997)
Still life on Beach, 1945
Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 51 cm
Donated by the artist
National Gallery of Greece and Alexandros Soutsos Museum
inv. no 4778

The exhibition functions as a kaleidoscope of images, through which we can follow all the stages of the development of Greek painting. Among the works on display are those of the 19th century marine painters Ioannis Altamouras, Konstantinos Volanakis, Vasilios Hatzis, and characteristic works by Nikolaos Lytras and Konstantinos Maleas, artists of early modernism. The exhibition also includes works by representatives or descendants of the Generation of the 1930s, such as Gerasimos Steris, Yannis Tsarouchis, Alekos Fassianos, and works by older and younger artists belonging to different movements, enjoying the freedom of the postmodern condition, such as Chrysa Vergi, Yannis Gaitis, Paris Precas, Theodoros Stamos, Thanos Tsigos, Mary Schoina, Panagiotis Tetsis, Kostas Tsoklis. In the context of contemporary means of expression, the work Aquis Sybmersus by Panos Charalambous is also presented, which combines video and sound.

Panayiotis Tetsis (1925-2016)
Rock in the Saronic Gulf, 2011
Oil on canvas, 98 x 213 cm
Alexis Tetsis Collection

Artistic programming: Syrago Tsiara, General Director of the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum

Exhibition curator: Efi Agathonikou, Head of the Department of Collections, Artistic and Museum Planning

Lambrini Karakourti, Curator of the Nafplion Branch

Architectural design of the exhibition: Irini-Daphne Sapka, Architectural Engineer and Technical Advisor of the National Gallery-Museum Alexandros Soutsos