Digital Collection of Athens School of Fine Arts Gallery
The ASFA Gallery Collection includes over 11,000 artworks of various media, which cover a period of time from the 19th century to the present day.
the ASFA Collection
ASFA owns and manages an extensive collection of works of art of special cultural value. Parallel to the establishment of the School of Fine Arts in 1837, a “Gallery” began to be established, with the main axis being the artistic production of those involved in the artistic education processes provided by the Foundation.
This collection includes over 9,000 visual works of various media, such as painting, sculpture, engraving, iconography, photography, drawings, etc., which cover a period of time from the 19th century to the present day.
The works that make up the collection of the Art Gallery are typical examples of the artistic activity of the teachers of the workshops, but also of the students of the Department of Visual Arts (TET) who were distinguished or awarded in pan-Hellenic competitions or submitted by TET graduates as a sample of their thesis . The collection also includes works by important artists that came from donations, as well as a large number of copies, reliefs and paintings of Greek folk art, made by TET students under the supervision of their professors, during educational missions. In this sense, the Gallery is a living example of the history of ASKT itself, and consequently a very important part of modern Greek art.
The Gallery’s collections continue to be enriched with the works of the Foundation’s graduates to this day.
For the publication of a work of the collection, in any way, the approval of the School of Fine Arts is required.
Contact :
Independent Department of Gallery, Exhibitions, Photo Archive and
Historical Documents
Tel.: 210 4801 336 /342
Email: gallery@asfa.gr
The program
The collection was digitized in the context of the program “Digital transformation and promotion of the cultural stock of ASFA 1837-2021. A Collection of works of study of visual development and recording of the historical path of Neo-Greek art” submitted and included in the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020” and the Priority Axis “Development of entrepreneurship support mechanisms” – with no. prot. 1591/333/A3/09-03-2021 Invitation entitled “Creation, promotion and utilization of Digital Cultural Stock” of the operational program “Competitiveness Entrepreneurship and Innovation” with code 118-EPANEK, ASKT.
20 years after the first digitization project of the previous Collection (2004-2005 / Information Society), ASFA re-implement with modern digital data and more modern and appropriate tools the Digital Collection of their Gallery as a whole, and offers the Academic community, to researchers and the general public, access to its particularly rich cultural stock, through a multitude of interactive applications, educational tools and interpretive digital exhibits.
Implementation
The project was implemented by the company Postscriptum in collaboration with the ASKT project team
Scientific Manager of the project: V. Betsou, Assistant Professor ASKT.
members of the project team: G. Harvalias, ASKT Professor, former Rector, Haris Retsos, ASKT Teaching Staff member, Periklis Antonaropoulos, ASKT ASKT Teaching Staff member
A few words about the History of the Collection
The first works that can safely be considered to have passed into the possession of the School of Arts are the 3 award-winning works by the brothers L. and G. Phytalis for the Kontostavelio Prize, in the years 1856 and 1857. Then, the oil painting by G. Iakovides with title Male Nude with Pitcher (ref.Coll.0911), from the State Scholarship Competition of 1877 (the prize-winning works in the sculpture and engraving sections from the same competition have not yet been identified). Engravings from the 19th century are not preserved in the ASKT Gallery (with the exception, perhaps, of 1242). Engraving is represented from the period of Kefallinos onwards. And in this case, however, only prints and not plates are preserved in the Gallery. In the printmaking workshop, all students were required to submit at least one print from the works they printed in the School’s workshops (regardless of whether they were awarded in the final exams).
Some works (mainly male nudes or semi-nudes) dating to the transition period from the 19th to the 20th century (0788, 0793, 0812, 0816) probably come from annual competitions. Up to this time, no policy in collection formation is apparent. The School keeps – only some – projects awarded in sponsored prizes or announced scholarships. At the beginning of the 20th century (1910s-1920s) the School also keeps the paintings awarded in the Averofian and Rallian competitions (eg 0817, 0818 0907, 0910). Surprisingly, the Averophean awards in sculpture have not yet been located, but some are published by K. Biris. After the reorganization of the School under K. Dimitriadis and its organization in laboratories, it seems that the exams of the graduates are organized at the end of the academic year and the awarded projects (probably after a decision of the Council of Professors) remain in the possession of the School. Students of painting competed (always on the basis of extant works) in the nude (full body, male or female) and in the portrait (head, male or female). More rarely, clusters or compositions with more than one figure are found. This situation is maintained throughout the interwar period, the Occupation and the post-war period (1950s). In the 1960s and 1970s, this logic does not change, etc.). However, new topics are being added. In particular, in addition to portraiture and the nude, students are also examined in landscape painting, creating studies in the countryside. In addition, the (male) nude course now includes the seated female nude, paraphrased in the titles of the works as Female half-nude. With the emergence and establishment of abstract trends in Greek art, free composition, with abstract, allegorical or even mythological representations, took the place of topography. This perception will be maintained at ASKT until the beginning of the 1980s, when with the change of the law – framework (1982) and the establishment of the preparation and presentation of a diploma thesis, the graduation exams (with standardized subjects) are abolished and each student gives a completely personal – separate project. In recent years since the 90s, the collection includes both audio-visual and digital works.
The deposit of selected alumni works into the Collection continues to this day.