When referring to one of the leading representatives of the famous Munich School, Konstantinos Volanakis, it is difficult to realize that he has never had a major exhibition in his native Crete.
Today, 116 years after his death, this ‘injustice’ is being rectified. Although he started out as a landscape painter, Volanakis became one of the most important Greek marine painters, depicting naval battles, scenes from ports, ships and boats, as well as important events in social life. His compositions, lyrical and atmospheric, are characterized by chromatic harmony and meticulous rendering of details and reveal his study of the Dutch maritime tradition. His landscapes show the influence of the Barbizon School and Corot’s work, and there are also echoes of French Impressionism.

He was a professor at the School of Fine Arts, where he taught Elementary Graphics and Painting until 1903, while at the same time teaching at the “Artistic Centre”, a school of painting that he himself founded in 1895 in Piraeus, where he settled after his return from Munich.

He was a professor at the School of Fine Arts, where he taught Elementary Graphics and Painting until 1903, while at the same time he taught at the “Artistic Centre”, a school of painting that he himself founded in 1895 in Piraeus, where he settled after his return from Munich.

He participated in the exhibitions of the Mela House in 1881 and the “Parnassus”, the Olympia in 1888, the Athens International Exhibition in 1903, in which he was awarded a silver prize, the Bordeaux International Exhibition in 1907, in which he was also awarded a prize, etc. In 1883, moreover, he presented the ‘Battle of Salamis’ at the Palace, while in 1889 he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Saviour.

The leading Greek marine painter ‘returns’ for the first time to his native island of Crete with the exhibition ‘Konstantinos Volanakis: Nostos of the Sea, works from the collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation”, which opens on 21 July at the Municipal Gallery of Chania and is being held under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The exhibition is composed of 57 works by the painter of imperial triumphs, glorious moments in Greek history and humble fishing boats, while oil paintings belonging to the Naval Headquarters, the Greek Parliament and the Bank of Greece are also included.

This is the first presentation of the artist’s work in his homeland.

“If a Greek visual artist can “claim” to have confronted the vastness of the sea, then it is none other than Konstantinos Volanakis. His artistic production, extending over almost half a century, covering almost the entire second half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, produced a body of works unsurpassed in quantity and quality. With his paintbrush, he depicted the sea and, above all, its world, in a unique way, thus enshrining, artistically and culturally, the most emblematic element and field of the Greek world, seamanship”, notes, among others, the curator of the exhibition, art historian and curator of the art collection of the Hellenic Parliament, Thodoris Koutsogiannis.
During the exhibition there will be guided tours for adults and educational programmes for students of all school levels.

Info

“Konstantinos Volanakis: Nostos of the Sea Works from the collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation”

Duration: 21.12.2011 – 31.12.2013.