In March of 2011, the collection of art works of the Heracles Cement Company, including 1,475 works, which were created for the annual diary the company publishes since 1956, was given on extended 19-year loan to the Benaki Museum.
Now, it’s up to the Museum to make the most of this collection for the next 19 years, by organizing annual thematic exhibitions.
The exhibition “12 Painters : Maps and landscapes from the Heracles Cement Company Collection” is the first of this series, that will reveal the less known aspects of the collection. Landscape painting is the main featured genre in these diaries, as from the 52 calendars 29 are exclussively dedicated to landscapes.
This year’s exhibition, however, does not focus on landscapes. The thematic axis around which it has been structured are the maps of Greek regions, created by 12 different painters, shown for the first time.
It all began in 1956, when Agenor Asteriadis painted aspects of Pelion. This combination of maps and landscapes was used in 13 more calendars: Spyros Vassiliou painted Western Macedonia and Aetolia-Akarnania for two different diaries, Giorgos Manousakis painted the Cyclades, Nikos Nikolaou painted Argolida, Panagiotis Tetsis painted Crete, Giannis Migadis painted the Ionian islands, Andreas Vourloumis Achaia and Elis, Kostas Malamos Epirus, Dimitris Mytaras Euboea, Manolis Kalligiannis Mytilene, Pavlos Samios Mount Athos and Psara and Dimitris Koukos Thrace.
Where and when
Benaki Museum, Pireos Str. Annexe, December 20, 2012 – January 20, 2013
