Description of the attraction
The Municipal Art Gallery of Rhodes (or Art Gallery) is located in the historic part of the island's capital of the same name. The gallery is located in an old two-story building in Simi Square and belongs to the Museum of Contemporary Greek Art of the Municipality of Rhodes. The magnificent medieval building is considered an important historical and architectural monument of the city.
The Municipal Gallery was founded by an excellent connoisseur of modern Greek art and the prefect of the Dodecanese, Andreas Ioannou, in 1950. At a time when even the National Gallery in Athens focused its interests on painting no older than the 19th century, Andreas Ioannou made every effort to collect, preserve and adequately present the work of talented young Greek artists. The Municipal Art Gallery opened its doors to visitors in 1964.
The gallery displays works by artists born after 1863. Among the most interesting and valuable canvases, it is worth highlighting the works of such Greek artists as Konstantinos Maleas, Konstantinos Partenis, Spyros Vasiliou, Nikos Hatzikiryakis-Gikos, Theophilos Hatzimikhail, Janis Spiropoulos, Fotis Kontoglou, Nikiforos Litras, George Buzianis, Nikos Yannisimorasit and Yannis Tsarukhis. The collection has a high artistic value and perfectly illustrates the development of modern Greek painting.
Today, the Rhodes Art Gallery owns one of the finest collections of contemporary Greek painting. In total, the gallery's collection contains about 700 magnificent paintings, but only 90 of them are available to the public in a permanent exhibition. Many of the paintings have been presented at official exhibitions, both in Greece and in other countries.
