The National Gallery was founded on April 10, 1900 by a law in which provision was also made for the assignment of a chief curator of the Foundation. The acclaimed painter Georgios Iakovidis was appointed in this position. The National Gallery’s operation regulation was legislated on 28/6/1900. Its early collections came from the National Technical University and the University of Athens. Substantial donations came to be added to these. Today, the National Gallery collections comprise more than 20,000 works of painting, sculpture, engraving and other forms of art; this is the treasury of Modern Greek art, encompassing the period from the post-Byzantine times until today. Moreover, the National Gallery owns a remarkable collection of Western European paintings. In 1954, the National Gallery merged with the Alexandros Soutzos Estate, hence its double name.
The institutional role of the National Gallery is to collect, safekeep, preserve, study and exhibit works of art towards the aesthetic training of the public, the on-going education through art and the recreation that it is able to provide, as well as the self-awareness of the Greek people through the history of art, which expresses the national history on a symbolic level.
Source: www.nationalgallery.gr
The initial proposal for the National Gallery building designed by the architect-professors Pavlos Mylonas, Nikos Moutsopoulos and Dimitris Fatouros in the spirit of Le Corbusier’s brutalist architecture, won first prize in an open competition in 1956-57.
In 1970, when the decision was made to change lots, the main idea of the initial design was retained, despite the fact that the shape of the new lot was not square, as was the original one, but triangular.
The new design for the complex was drawn up by P. Mylonas and D. Fatouros, assisted by the young architect Dimitris Antonakakis.
The building group consists of two main volumes, a long narrow multi-storeyed rectangular volume to house the main Gallery, the permanent exhibitions, the offices and storage areas, and the two-storey cube of the Alexandros Soutzos Museum, which includes the entrance and houses periodic exhibitions. The two volumes are connected by a narrow bridge forming an asymmetrical H.
The elevations of the building are treated by visible concrete and surfaces faced with white marble. The low mass has arcades with columns of unplastered concrete in front and back, while the two lengthwise sides of the tall building are organised rhythmically on a 90o grid of concrete fins that protect it from direct light.
Source: athenscitymuseum.gr