The Municipal Gallery of Corfu was founded in 1991 under the mayorship of Mr. Ioannis Kourkoulos, originally being housed in the Dalietos abode and then, since 1995 in the east wing of the Old Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George, in the historic centre of Corfu. A part of the engraving collections has also been exhibited since November 2008 in the historic building of the Ionian Parliament.
The two monuments, characteristic examples of neoclassical architecture of the period of British Protection (1819-1823, George Whitmore and 1855, Ioannis Chronis), offer an ideal environment for hosting the Gallery’s collections which are presented in two major exhibitions of historical development in the evolution of painting and in Corfu (16th-20th century).
In the banquet halls and residences of the military guard in the Old Palace and also in the historic meeting place in the Ionian Parliament, the exhibitions of works of art by Ionian artists, in harmonious coexistence with the special physiognomy of the monuments, contribute to a new use and their operation, within the plan of development and promotion of the city of Corfu as a World Heritage Site (2007, Unesco).
Municipal Gallery of Corfu, the collections
The Gallery’s collections include those of sculpture and art photography, as well as the works of contemporary artists that are exhibited in periodic exhibitions from time to time as they are not yet hosted in permanent exhibition spaces.
A part of all the exhibitions is the recently digitized collection of works of art of the Gallery.
The collections consist of purchases of the Municipality of Corfu but mainly of the very generous offers of Ionian artists and their families (indicatively we mention the donations of the painting collections of Georgios Samartzis, Aglaia Pappas, Filippos Makoutsis, the family of Harachonis Arias Komianou et al.).
The recent donations of members of the Union of Greek Engravers are constantly enriching the collection of Contemporary Greek Engraving, part of which is presented in the Ionian Parliament. Works are also collected from donations by artists who exhibit in the periodical exhibitions of the Municipal Gallery of Corfu, in the Department of Peristyle as well as in the “Art Gallery”.
Source
Πινακοθήκη Δήμου Κέρκυρας, http://artcorfu.gr/
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