History
The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki was founded in 1979 by a group of visionary citizens of Thessaloniki. In a conversation between Maro Lagia and Alexandros Iolas, after the latter had shown a keen interest in the damage inflicted on monuments by the 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake, Maro proposed the creation of a contemporary art centre in Thessaloniki. Iola’s response was immediate –“Oh yes, no more hospitals and orphanages; a centre of contemporary art; that’s exactly what Thessaloniki needs.” Alexandros Iolas’ encounter with Thessaloniki was to acquire special significance, not only for the city but also for the posthumous fame of this singularly perceptive collector. There is nothing in Greece today to recall his inspired and creative sojourn in the country save the collection of the 47 works that he donated a generation ago as a “nucleus” around which to build a Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in this city.
Alexander Iolas or Alexandre Iolas was a Greek gallerist and collector. He owned galleries in the United States and Europe and contributed in many private and public art collections.
The 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake occurred on 20 June at 23:03 local time. The shock registered 6.5 on the moment magnitude scale, had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), and was felt throughout northern Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. It was the largest event in the area since the 1932 Ierissos earthquake.
It was with great joy that the Board of Directors of the MMCA decided to honour him by giving his name to the Museum’s new three-storey wing and to dedicate to him the catalogue of the permanent collection, which now numbers more than one thousand works (paintings, sculptures, installations, assemblages, engravings, photographs), in the hope that the Museum will remain independent, unconventional and open-minded, that is guided by the same principles that characterised Iolas himself.
The gesture made by Alexandros Iolas, the Museum’s first great benefactor, found its followers. Well-known collectors, including Magda Kotzia, Franz Geiger, Alexandros and Dorothea Xydis, Giorgos Apergis and Dimitris Meïmaroglou, and with them a host of artists, continue to offer collections and individual works, constantly expanding the Museum’s collection. In addition to our gratitude to all the artist-donors who have thus supported the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, we wish to express our immense appreciation of their work. The formal and conceptual qualities of their work succeed in establishing a dialectic relation with the young students through the Museum’s educational programmes. Thus, the artistic message is conveyed to the young people promoting their cultural awareness.
The permanent collection
At present the MMCA's permanent collection comprises 2000 works by Greek and foreign artists, it is constantly being augmented by gifts from collectors, artists, gallery owners, and private individuals and constantly presented in the museum' s new wing.
Apart from the permanent display, the MMCA has mounted over 100 exhibitions of works by Greek and foreign artists: retrospectives of the work of Yannis Tsarouchis, Tsoclis, Photios Kontoglou, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Kokkinidis, Alekos Fassianos, Aggelika Korovessi, Spyropoulos, Psychopaidis, Pavlos, Kessanlis, Akrithakis, Andy Warhol, Katzourakis and Perdikidis have been held for the first time in Greece; and other exhibitions have been devoted to the works of Fluxus, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Roberto Matta, Viallat, Joseph Beuys, Uecker, David Hockney, Max Ernst, Barlach, Max Beckmann, Vlassis Kaniaris, Takis, Molfessis, Lazongas, Papadimitriou, Stephen Antonakos, Zongolopoulos, Mytaras, Triandafyllou, Ekonomopoulos, Alithinos and many other artists. The MMCA has published more than fifty bilingual catalogues to accompany solo and group exhibitions.
Yannis Tsarouchis was a Greek painter.
Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, also known as Niko Ghika, was a leading Greek painter, sculptor, engraver, writer and academic. He was a founding member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.
Alekos Fassianos is a Greek painter.
George Costakis was a collector of Russian art whose collection became the most representative body of Modern Russian avant-garde art anywhere. In the years surrounding the 1917 revolution, artists in Russia produced the first non-figurative art, which was to become the defining art of the 20th century. Costakis by chance discovered some constructivist paintings in a Moscow studio in 1946, and he went on to search for the revolutionary art which might otherwise have been lost to the world.
Constantin Xenakis is a European artist based in France. His work often includes written script, in particular the Hebrew alphabet. symbols and codes of everyday life, traffic signs, alchemy, the zodiac, mathematical and chemical symbols, Egyptian hieroglyphics, letters from the Greek, Phoenician and Arabic alphabets.
The Thessaloniki State Museum of Modern Art is a state museum based in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It was founded in 1997, at the occasion of Thessaloniki's year as European Capital of Culture. It is housed in the renovated building of the old Lazariston Monastery in the Borough of Stavroupoulis in west Thessaloniki. The museum was established by a law passed in the Greek Parliament by then Greek Minister of Culture, Evangelos Venizelos. Its initial collection was formed by a large part of the famous Costakis Collection, acquired by the Greek state. It contains around 1,275 works of Russian avant-garde art consisting of paintings, sculptures, drawings and constructions. The first director of the SMCA was the Aristotle University Professor Miltiadis Papanikolaou, who remained in the position until 2006. Dr. Maria Tsantsanoglou, a specialist in the Russian Avant-Garde period, was appointed the next director of the State Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation was established in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece in 1972. It was named after Nestor and Aliki Telloglou, who donated their art collection and their entire property to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Later the University established this foundation in order to house the art collection and make it available to the public.
Alexandros Tzannis is a Greek painter. His work has been shown at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany, the New Benaki Museum, Athens and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.
The Museum for the Macedonian Struggle is located in the centre of the city Thessaloniki in Central Macedonia, Greece. It occupies a neo-classical building designed by the renowned architect Ernst Ziller and built in 1893. In its six ground-floor rooms the museum graphically illustrates the modern and contemporary history of Greek Macedonia. It presents the social, economic, political and military developments that shaped the presence of Hellenism in the region. This approach enables the visitor to form a global picture, not only of the revolutionary movements in the area, but also of the rapidly changing society of the southern Balkans and its agonizing struggles to balance between tradition and modernization.
Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali was a Greek American artist who worked in a wide variety of media. An American art pioneer in light art and luminist sculpture widely known for her neon, steel, aluminum and acrylic glass installations, she has always used the mononym Chryssa professionally. She worked from the mid-1950s in New York City studios and worked since 1992 in the studio she established in Neos Kosmos, Athens, Greece.
The Museum of Byzantine Culture is a museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece, which opened in 1994.
The Cultural Center of the National Bank of Greece in Thessaloniki is a museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It belongs to the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation.
The War Museum of Thessaloniki is a military museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece.
Thessaloniki Olympic Museum, the unique Olympic Museum of Greece, is situated at Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. The museum is located on the confluence and educational, athletic and cultural routes of the city. It stands next to the Kaftanzoglio National Stadium and the Aristotle University.
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, established in October 2000, is the sole national institution focused only on collecting and exhibiting contemporary Greek and international art in Athens. Anna Kafetsi, Ph.D in Aesthetics- Art History and former curator for 17 years of the 20th century collection at the National Gallery of Athens, was appointed founding director of EMST.
The Techni Art Association was founded in the city of Kilkis in Central Macedonia, Greece in 1980 as a branch of the association of the same name in Thessaloniki. It runs classes in painting, ballet, piano, and guitar, a 3,000-volume library, exhibitions of rocks, the written word, and other themes, and a drama group supervised by the actor Dimitris Karellis.
The Municipal Art Gallery of the Municipality of Thessaloniki in Central Macedonia, Greece was founded in 1966 as an offshoot of the Municipal Library. Since 1986 it has been housed in the Villa Mordoch on Vassilissis Olgas Avenue, a mansion designed by the architect Xenophon Paionidis in the eclectic style in 1905 and owned by the Municipality of Thessaloniki. Since 2013 it is housed in Villa Bianca, also on Vassilissis Olgas Avenue. It also uses the Makridis Room near the Posidonio sports centre on the sea front and the old Archaeological Museum as permanent exhibition spaces.
Founded in 1975, the Art Gallery of the Society for Macedonian Studies is a museum in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was the first organised visual art institution in the city of Thessaloniki, its purpose being to promote and disseminate modern Greek art, mainly that of northern Greece. It occupies the top floor of the building that also houses the State Theatre of Northern Greece. The building was designed by the architect Vassilis Kassandras and stands directly opposite the White Tower on the sea-front.
The National Map Library, properly the National Centre for Maps and Cartographic Heritage - National Map Library, is located in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It was established in 1997 for the purpose of preserving, archiving, conserving, promoting, and displaying maps, studying the educational, cultural, and social role of maps, collaborating at a scientific and technical level with national and international organizations, organizing permanent and mobile exhibitions accompanied by catalogues, utilising public and private map collections, and organising seminars and conferences.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) is a contemporary art museum with the main museum in Gwacheon and three branches each in Deoksugung, Seoul and Cheongju. The museum was first established in 1969 as the only national art museum in the country accommodating modern and contemporary art of Korea and international art of different time periods.
Tassos Mantzavinos is a Greek painter who graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts. His work has been exhibited in many museums and galleries in Greece and abroad and he has also worked on various book illustrations.
Alexis Akrithakis was a Greek contemporary artist renowned for his paintings and wooden constructions. His works have been described as "speaking an unmistakable language. They stand on their own and are original, but are yet influenced by the particular Zeitgeist - between Arte Povera and Actioninsm".
