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54-522: The museum was founded in 1997, on the occasion of Thessaloniki's year as European Capital of Culture . It was established by a law passed in the Greek Parliament by then Greek Minister of Culture , Evangelos Venizelos . Its initial collection was formed by a large part of the famous Costakis Collection , acquired by the Greek state on 31 March 2000 for 14,200,000,000 drachmas. Since 2018,

108-891: A 21-year old, during the Axis occupation of Greece , and deported to Vienna , Austria, to work in forced labour at the train repair shop " Eisenbahnausbesswerungswerken Kledering " ( Simmering district ) maintaining railway vehicles for the National Socialist's regime . Once the Second World War had come to an end, Avramidis was categorised as suspicious by the Soviet occupation authorities in Vienna due to his knowledge of Russian and deported to an internment camp near Budapest . However, he managed to escape and return to Vienna. There Avramidis began studying painting as

162-794: A grand solo show at the art event for which he received the Grand Prize for Sculpture that year. Franco Russoli, a friend of Giacometti and director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan , later expanded on this comment by recognising in the work of Avramidis "the constantly recurring image of loneliness, the search for a refuge in the embrace of people locked in their own inability to communicate". Avramidis later participated in documenta III (1964) and documenta 6 (1977) in Kassel and enjoyed an important number of participations in exhibitions over

216-427: A joint bid from Northern Irish cities of Belfast and Derry and the town of Strabane . A new framework makes it possible for cities in candidate countries ( Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Georgia , Moldova , Montenegro , North Macedonia , Serbia , Turkey , Ukraine ), potential candidates for EU membership ( Kosovo ) or EFTA member states ( Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland ) to hold

270-652: A painter, he began a further study in the Masterclass for Conservation and Technology taught by Robert Eigenberger (1890–1979). In 1953, Avramidis made his first sculpture, a " Kopf " (Head), out of quarry stone (now in the collection of the National Gallery, Athens ). He showed this work to Fritz Wotruba, who had been teaching in Vienna since his return from exile in Switzerland. Wotruba's enthusiasm led him to accept Avramidis into his sculpture class at

324-735: A pilot exhibition based on works by Kazimir Malevich and other artists were organized during 2002. The exhibitions Composition and Constructions , that referred to international Constructivism , and Nikitin and Kliun , with works from the Costakis collection, took place in 2003. The pride and joy of the museum is the works in the Costakis collection. This collection consists of 1,275 works of Russian avant-garde art, including paintings , sculptures , drawings and constructions. The works are by well-known artists like Kazimir Malevich , Vladimir Tatlin , Wassily Kandinsky , El Lissitzky , and Lyubov Popova , among others. The West became familiar with

378-593: A regular student in the masterclass of Robin Christian Andersen (1890–1969), from 1945 till 1949, at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (in German  : Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien ). Fellow academy students were a.o. Ernst Fuchs , Erich (later called Arik) Brauer , Giselbert Hoke and Kurt Absolon. Somewhat fortuitously, in 1953, having finished art school a couple of years earlier, his talents as

432-819: A sculptor were discovered by Fritz Wotruba , which led him, at the age of 31, to attend Wotruba's sculpture classes at the same academy, from 1953 to 1956. Upon graduation in 1956, Avramidis received the Staatspreis der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien , his first honorary award of many. «Wotruba war ein Glücksfall für mich, dabei interessierte er mich eigentlich gar nicht als Lehrer. Außerdem hatte ich die Akademie schon verlassen. Aber dann kam ich mit einem Kopf an die Akademie, Wotruba holte sofort seine gesamte Schülerschaft.» (in German); Translation : «Wotruba

486-437: A sculpture entitled " Saülen " ( Columns ) for the first time. Another version from 1963, " Modell für eine Säule II " (Model for a Column II) shows the principle of stacking a single Figur or a Figurengruppe with the same, but inverted, Figur or Figurengruppe , thus creating a mirrored columnar effect which could then be replicated endlessly. This process would ultimately be leading Avramidis to conceive his magnum opus ,

540-549: A specialist in the Russian avant-garde period, was appointed the next director. The museum's founding mission is to preserve and display works of contemporary art by Greek and foreign artists, to improve the public's aesthetic appreciation and art education, to develop scientific research into issues surrounding the history and theory of contemporary art, as well as to assist art historians and theoreticians who wish to specialize in museology. As well as maintaining its collections,

594-519: A strong, muscular neck, and sometimes a more prominent chin or the suggestion of hair mass, as can be witnessed in " Kopf 2 " (Head 2) and " Kopf IV" (Head IV), both from 1959, " Kopf " (Head), from 1961 to 1970, " Kopf II " (Head II), from 1965, and " Stirn-Kinn Kopf " (Forehead-Chin Head), from 1971. "Kopf IV [3 Stadien] " (Head IV [3 Stages]), from 1959, and " Assymetrical Head ", from 1960, are both intriguing works showing three evolving phases in

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648-405: A student, he painted small landscapes and intimistic subjects that are suggestive of a certain penchant for melancholy and a proximity to Pittura metafisica . Andersen taught him the importance of composition and of reducing the painter's palette to local colours. 1948 was the year Avramidis made his first set of " Kubische Köpfe " (Cubic Heads) in charcoal. After his graduation in 1949 as

702-619: A victim of ethnic repression by Stalin 's henchmen. Alas, his studies came to a premature end in 1939 when the whole family (i.e. his mother and her 4 children) had to re-emigrate again, this time to Greece, due to the USSR 's sustained policy leading to ethnic cleansing . After living 4 difficult years in Greece, first in Athens and later in Northern Greece , he was conscripted in 1943, as

756-435: Is a classical one, whereby "classical" means nothing less than the fulfilment of an idea. Avramidis' utopia of the "Absolute Figure" grew out of the constant struggle between the "data" wrested from nature and the construction forced by the idea in equal measure: drawing and sculpture as an indissolubly interwoven approach to an ideal image of man that transcended the ages and had to be reconstructed. Avramidis' unique achievement

810-507: Is also a painter. After the death in 2014 of his wife Annemarie, a poet and accomplished sculptor in her own right, he completely withdrew from public life, and during the night of January 16, 2016, Joannis Avramidis died at the age of 93, in Vienna, surrounded by his family. The teachings of Professor Andersen at the Academy (1945-1949) introduced Avramidis to early Renaissance painters such as Masaccio and Piero della Francesca . As

864-579: Is based on the laconic sobriety of his sculptural conception, which constructively strives for the greatest possible objectification of form and yet means nothing more than its sublimated sensuality. Avramidis was convinced that it was only possible to advance into the spiritual centre of sculpture by abandoning the individual in favour of the universal." Michael Semff, Direktor der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung in München, in "Joannis Avramidis - Skulpturen und Zeichnungen", monograph, 2005 In 1959, he

918-728: Is housed in Warehouse B1, Pier A, at the Port of Thessaloniki . The first six editions of the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art  [ el ] were organized by the museum. The seventh edition in 2019-2020 was implemented by MOMus Contemporary. The first director of the museum was the Aristotle University Professor Miltiadis Papanikolaou , who remained in the position until 2006. Maria Tsantsanoglou,

972-1125: Is that I could have made my work in a different era as well, for example in the early Renaissance or the ancient archaic period.» "Avramidis’ Ahnenreihe ist eine klassische, wobei “klassisch” nichts Geringeres als die Vollendung einer Idee meint. Avramidis’ Utopie der “Absoluten Figur” erwuchs aus dem steten Kampf zwischen den der Natur abgerungenen “Daten” und der durch die Idee gleichermaβen erzwungenen Konstruktion: Zeichnung und Skulptur als unauflösbar verflochtene Annäherung an ein Ideales, die Zeiten übergreifendes Menschenbild, das es zu rekonstruieren galt. Avramidis’ einzigartige Leistung gründet in der lakonischen Nüchternheit seiner bilhauerischen Vorstellung, welche die gröβtmöglische Objektivierung der Form konstruktiv anstrebt und dennoch nichts als deren sublimierte Sinnlichkeit meint. Es war Avramidis’ Überzeugung, daβ es nur noch möglich sei, in das geistige Zentrum der Bildhauerei vorzustoβen, indem das Individuelle zugunsten des Universellen preisgegeben werden müsse." (in German); Translation : "Avramidis' line of ancestors

1026-728: The Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , an Autonomous Republic of the former Soviet Union (in present-day Georgia ), to a family of Pontic Greeks , who had fled the repression of ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire in the turmoil leading up to the Greco-Turkish War . He began studying painting at the State Art School of Batumi in 1937, the same year his father had violently died in prison as

1080-518: The Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg . They generally come in three typical formal declinations: Orthogonale Bandfiguren (Rectangular Band Figures) and Bandfiguren in the form of Kantprofile (Edge Profiles) or Rundprofile (Round Profiles): Art historian Prof. Dr. Christa Lichtenstern, writes about the Bandfiguren as being " centrifugal, in opposite direction: it stands under

1134-650: The " Humanitas-Saüle " (Column of Humanity), during the 1990s, work that is clearly influenced by Constantin Brâncuși 's Endless Column . During the 1965-66 academy year, when he had taken over the Class for Nude Drawing (in German ;: Klasse für Aktzeichnen ) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from Herbert Boeckl (1894–1966), he began working on " Polis ", a further evolution of the Figurengruppe , and made

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1188-630: The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and award a private studio space to Avramidis to work in for the duration of his studies. Fellow students were : Andreas Urteil, Alfred Hrdlicka , Alfred Czerny, Erwin Reiter, Franz Anton Coufal, Leopold Höfinger, Roland Goeschl and Oswald Oberhuber . While his 1954 bronze sculpture " Kleine Halbfigur " (Small Half-Figure) is still embedded in the Wotruba tradition with its additive, cubist construction, other bronze sculptures such as " Torso" and " Kopf " (Head) mark

1242-691: The Costakis collection through exhibitions in Düsseldorf, New York and Athens. The museum's collections also contain two hundred works of art, paintings and sculptures, which were donated by the Cultural Capital 1997 Organization, and significant pieces of work donated to the museum by artists themselves. Notable among them are The Chapel of the Heavenly Stairway by Stylianos Antonakos, Gridlock by Chris Giannakos and Group of Four Figures by Joannis Avramidis , all Greek artists of

1296-702: The European Union manages the title, and each year the Council of Ministers of the European Union formally designates European Capitals of Culture: more than 40 cities have been designated so far. The current European Capitals of Culture for 2024 are Tartu in Estonia , Bad Ischl in Austria and Bodø in Norway . An international panel of cultural experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for

1350-424: The abstraction one step further. As in his Figuren , features that are usually associated with the facial recognition of an individual person such as eyes, mouth, nose or ears cannot be distinguished in a lot of the sculptures or the drawings & paintings he produced over the years. All that remains are smooth (i.e. untextured ), rounded, reduced shapes representing the oblong form of a skull, firmly attached to

1404-467: The beginnings of an independent development towards the calculated multi-axiality of the figure. The tendency towards exact segmentation of the limbs can be observed particularly in the nude drawings and proportion schemes for sculptures. In 1955, he spent some time studying in Paris, where he became friends with the poet and translator Jean-Claude Hemery (1931–1985). Since 1956, his graduation year,

1458-674: The chosen cities. Bids from five United Kingdom cities to be the 2023 Capital of Culture were disqualified in November 2017, because the UK was planning to leave the EU before 2023. The European Capital of Culture programme was initially called the European City of Culture and was conceived in 1983, by Melina Mercouri , then serving as minister of culture in Greece . Mercouri believed that at

1512-498: The city's image, and raise its visibility and profile on an international scale. Multiple cities can be a European Capital of Culture simultaneously. In 1985, Melina Mercouri , Greece 's Minister of Culture , and her French counterpart Jack Lang came up with the idea of designating an annual City of Culture to bring Europeans closer together by highlighting the richness and diversity of European cultures and raising awareness of their common history and values. The Commission of

1566-486: The construction of a head. The 3 heads are made respectively of an aluminium lattice-work construction, an aluminium lattice-work construction filled in with plaster, and, finally, a bronze, presented together on a single aluminium plaque. " Head-Rhombus " is an atypical head from 1967, in stainless steel, which Avramidis rarely used. " Kopf - Das trojanische Pferd " (Head - The Trojan Horse), from 1970, changes course again both in shape as in materiality by resorting to

1620-514: The diaspora. European Capital of Culture A European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union (EU) for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong pan-European dimension. Being a European Capital of Culture can be an opportunity for a city to generate considerable cultural, social, and economic benefits, and it can help foster urban regeneration , change

1674-610: The following decades and creating Avramidis' signature style . From a single Figur he quickly evolved into creating a series of Figurengruppen (Groups of Figures), clustering the individual figures tightly into a fused block of figures. The groups always concern an uneven number of figures. In Avramidis' distinct style épuré (purist style), all the figures are faceless, anonymous, static and stern, which would lead Werner Hofmann to describe Avramidis' style as " Der Rhythmus der Strenge" (the Rhythm of Severity). In 1963 Avramidis made

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1728-562: The guiding type of the ribbon (i.e. band) and increasingly seeks mobility and openness of space. ", in contrast to the Saülenfiguren . A recurring topos in Avramidis' oeuvre is the human head , in an often highly stylised, upright, even stern representation which is crystallising into total abstraction. This makes one think that Avramidis was not only imbued by Brâncuși's approach to sculpting heads, but sometimes willing to take

1782-521: The human body without defining it, whilst various profile views are fanned out, as though blurred. «Ich habe das Wunschbild, daß meine Arbeit so wenig wie möglich zeitabhängig ist. Meine Idealvorstellung ist, daß ich meine Arbeit auch in einer anderen Zeit hätte machen können, etwa in der Frührenaissance oder in der antiken Archaik.» (in German) Translation ;: «I would like my work to be as timeless as possible. My ideal vision

1836-555: The initial sketches for " Tempel " (Temple), a never realised project Avramidis pursued till the end of his life. He made a number of preparatory sketches and models such as " Tempel in Olympia ", 1963 - 1974, or " Tempel – Modellierte Figur ", which evolved from the Polis -group into a circular wall of columns, with the 1958 bronze " Modellierte Figur " projected to stand in the centre of the large-scale " Tempel " sculpture. " Agora "

1890-419: The late 1960s onwards, Thomas often helped with fabricating his brother's sculptures. In 1952 Avramidis wed Waltraud Rathofer, a restoration expert, whom he divorced in 1955, the same year he officially became an Austrian citizen. In 1962 he married a fellow art student, another pupil of Wotruba, Annemarie Avramidis née Persche (Vienna, 1939–2013). They had a daughter Julia Frank-Avramidis (* 1969), who

1944-491: The latter being Stavanger , Norway , which was a European Capital of Culture in 2008. A 2004 study conducted for the Commission, known as the "Palmer report", demonstrated that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for cultural development and the transformation of the city. Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the chosen city are now also considered in determining

1998-536: The museum has merged with MOMus Contemporary , MOMus Photography , MOMus Museum Alex Mylona and other institutions under the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus) umbrella. The Centre of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, which used to be a self-contained department of the museum, is now known as MOMus Experimental or MOMus–Experimental Center for the Arts. It

2052-687: The museum organizes permanent and temporary exhibitions. There are over a hundred works of art on display in the permanent exhibition, by artists such as Olga Rozanova , Nadezhda Udaltsova , Alexander Rodchenko , Solomon Nikritin , Ivan Kliun , Gustav Klutsis , Ilya Chashnik , K. Ender, Aleksandr Drevin , I. Kudriashev, A. Sofronova, and K. Vialov. They are the best works in the collection and refer to important personages, avant-garde movements and artistic tendencies. The museum also organizes temporary exhibitions. LIGHT in Art (artificial light, natural light, electric light, metaphysical light), BLACK in art ,

2106-452: The renowned Galerie Würthle (est. 1865, since 1881 active in Vienna), and when he developed the first sketches for sculptures based on mathematical calculations, such as " Bein " (Leg), a bronze. It is also the year in which he made the acquaintance of Annemarie Persche, who would later become his second wife. While Avramidis' 1958 bronze sculpture "Modellierte Figur " (Modelled Figure)

2160-571: The search for the ' absolute figure ' stands at the centre of his work. Consequently, two eras serve as sources of inspiration for the artist, eras in which the figure and its proportions were held as the measure of all things. These are the Classical Antiquity and the Italian Renaissance . Avramidis allows the borders between abstraction and figurative depiction to merge in his sculptures. Softly rounded curves suggest

2214-426: The skull and neck. Another version, " Kopf mit tiefenräumlichen Flächen III " (Head with Deep Spatial Surfaces III), also from 1969/70, adds a third form, a trapezoidal prism , suggestive of a nose. Avramidis also produced Rectangular Figure or Band Figure heads such as " Head Front Side (Rectangular Head) ", from 1968, in aluminium, and " Bandkopf II " (Band Head II), from 1981/82, in solid aluminium. During

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2268-641: The subject "Morphology of the Fine Arts" (in German : Morphologie der Bildenden Kunst ). Avramidis was a member of the Wiener Secession . In 1962 Avramidis made the acquaintance of Alberto Giacometti at the 31st Biennale in Venice , where he represented Austria together with Friedrich (who later called himself Friedensreich ) Hundertwasser . His 22 sculptures were praised for their " quality and drama " by Giacometti, who had been awarded

2322-533: The subtle suggestion of eyes are clear identifiers of the human head. " Kopf mit tiefenräumlichen Flächen I " (Head with Deep Spatial Surfaces I), from 1969/70, a version of which is shown in a courtyard at the German Bundestag , boldly offers a dramatic counterpoint to the previously rounded shapes. Here, Avramidis goes for even greater spatial reduction by opting for only 2 strong wedge-shaped forms, with almost razor-sharp angular edges, representing just

2376-412: The time, culture was not given the same attention as politics and economics and a project for promoting European cultures within the member states should be pursued. The European City of Culture programme was launched in the summer of 1985 with Athens being the first title-holder. In 1999, the European City of Culture program was renamed to European Capital of Culture. The European Capital of Culture

2430-476: The title according to criteria specified by the European Union. For two of the capitals each year, eligibility is open to cities in EU member states only. From 2021 and every three years thereafter, a third capital will be chosen from cities in countries that are candidates or potential candidates for membership, or in countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) – an example of

2484-517: The title every third year as of 2021. This will be selected through an open competition, meaning that cities from various countries may compete with each other. Joannis Avramidis Joannis Avramidis ( Greek : Iωάννης Aβραμίδης ; born 23 September 1922, Batumi – 16 January 2016, Vienna) was a contemporary Greek - Austrian painter and sculptor. He was born in Batumi , on the Black Sea , in

2538-482: The use of a orange-tinged synthetic resin filled in on an aluminium lattice-work construction. A similar shape exists also in bronze: " Kopf, das trojanische Pferd " (Head, the Trojan Horse). " Großer Kopf " (Large Head), a large bronze from 1970, is other proof of the artistic design parameters used in Avramidis' work concerning harmony, symmetry and proportion, but, this time, a distinctive nose, mouth, chin and

2592-410: The years of hardship spend in exile in Greece with his family. These formative years led him to discover his ancestral roots as a " Hellene ", a persona that would guide him through all of his career. In 1966, Avramidis started making a new type of sculptures, called " Bandfiguren" (Band Figures) — as an antithesis to his closed upright " Säulenfiguren "—, during his tenure as visiting professor at

2646-657: The years, both solo or in group. Joannis Avramidis was the son of the merchant, ship owner and flower grower Konstantin Avramidis and his wife Eleni, who had emigrated to the Russian Tsarist Empire in 1916 in order to escape the oppression of the Greek minority in the Ottoman Empire. His father Konstantin was a Black Sea Greek whose family had lived in Georgia for generations. Joannis Avramidis had three younger siblings: Georgette, Thomas and Sofia. From

2700-446: Was a stroke of luck for me, although I wasn't really interested in him as a teacher. Besides, I had already left the academy. But then I came to the academy with a head and Wotruba immediately brought in his entire student body.» Ten years later, he returned to his Alma mater to become a professor until his retirement in 1992 : At the academy he worked closely together with Heimo Kuchling , an art theorist who initiated and taught

2754-494: Was another, even grander, project that never made it to realisation, although Avramidis' sketches and sculpture studies can give us a glimpse of what was intended. In one drawing from 1972 he imagined a giant Head to be surrounded by individual figures or group figures. Polis , Temple and Agora are all topoi that stem from his encounter as an adolescent boy with the impressive remnants of Greek antiquity in Athens during

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2808-473: Was due to be in the UK in 2023. However, due to its decision to leave the European Union , UK cities would no longer be eligible to hold the title after 2019. The European Commission's Scotland office confirmed that this would be the case on 23 November 2017, only one week before the UK was due to announce which city would be put forward. The candidate cities were Dundee , Leeds , Milton Keynes , Nottingham and

2862-489: Was invited by commissioner Josef Musil to participate with a stone sculpture, " Figur “ (Figure), and a bronze sculpture, " Studie “ (Study), in the Austrian selection for the 28th Venice Biennale (16 June - 21 Oct 1956), where work of eleven other Austrian painters and sculptors was shown in the elegant National Pavilion designed by Josef Hoffman . 1957 marked the year during which Avramidis got his first solo show, at

2916-401: Was still modelled after an Ancient Greek kouros , his "Große Figur “ (Large Figure) from the same year was the first sculpture to consistently define the body as a coupled column, where limbs and body are fused together in a closed shape. In his modular Figuren- sculptures, Avramidis was to reduce the anthropomorphic to its most elemental form, thus testing one of his key design principles for

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