From 01.04.2025 to 11.01.2026<\/p>\n
National Gallery – Central Building<\/p>\n
To mark the centenary of Panayiotis Tetsis\u2019s birth, the National Gallery in Athens presents a major retrospective exhibition titled \u2018The Obsession of the Gaze.\u2019 This comprehensive tribute to the distinguished Greek artist opens on 10 April 2025 at 7.30 p.m., in the temporary exhibition space of the Anthony E. Komninos Foundation Gallery.<\/p>\n
A painter, printmaker, teacher, and academician, Panayiotis Tetsis served as both chairman of the Artistic Committee and president of the Board of Directors of the National Gallery. Regarded as a pre-eminent figure in post-war Greek art, he helped shape the development of contemporary art in Greece through both his practice and his teaching.<\/p>\n
In addition to presenting the arc of his artistic career, this exhibition also aims to highlight his distinctive gaze \u2013 an approach that placed particular emphasis on light and colour in his treatment of subject matter.<\/p>\n
\u2018Street Market\u2019 and \u2018Hydra\u2019 introduce visitors to Tetsis\u2019s world, before taking a deep dive into his body of work. The exhibition traces a thematic rather than strictly chronological path, enabling visitors to discover the artist\u2019s unique visual idiom and how he observed the world around him, transforming it into art \u2013 paintings, prints, watercolours, and pastels. As we come to know Tetsis\u2019s pictorial cosmos, we realise that these thematic threads often align with distinct chronological periods. For lengthy spans of time \u2013 often four years or longer \u2013 he would immerse himself almost obsessively in a single subject. This gave rise to distinct series of works, such as footballers, gardens, balcony doors, chairs, shipyards, the landscapes of Sifnos and Hydra, the street market, tables, boats, seas, portraits of friends, still lifes, pine trees, and lastly, the rocks of Hydra.<\/p>\n
These painting series are complemented by works in other media \u2013 ink drawings, prints, watercolours \u2013 all of which the artist viewed as communicating vessels. By working in this way, he was able to explore a subject and its depiction from multiple angles and perspectives.<\/p>\n
The exhibition brings together 160 works, mostly paintings, along with prints, watercolours, and pastels. The majority come from the artist\u2019s generous donations to the National Gallery between 1997 and 2015, with a further 64 works drawn from institutional and private collections. The selection aims to highlight his intensely focused gaze \u2013 the way he observed his surroundings and translated them into visual language \u2013 or reveal lesser-known facets of his artistic output and stylistic development.<\/p>\n
Curator: Efi AgathonikouDuration: April \u2013 October 2025<\/p>\n
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