Urbanography: The Life of the City in the Decades 1950-1970

The current temporary exhibition at the National Gallery explores the post war urban experience of Greece. Syrago Tsiara, the gallery's newly appointed director, is the curator of Urbanography: City Life in the Decades 1950-1970. The exhibition presents 77 artists, 202 works of art, half of which are from the National Gallery's collection while the rest are on loan from public and private collections, and 22 films (excerpts from 18 feature films and 4 full-length short films). Painting, sculpture, printmaking, installations, photography, drawings, and posters are on display, along with parts of popular Greek cinema, and critical realist films, in an ongoing dialogue. The exhibition is arranged so as to continually move from the broader picture to the close-up and the minutiae of ordinary life, and in this way allows the viewer to “experience” the city as it went through the rapid changes that occurred between 1950 and 1970. Urbanography is divided into seven themes: "Scenography," "Nostalgia," "Yapi," "Close-up," "Spectacle," "Dreams and Conflicts," and "Materialities."

The exhibition is a collaboration between the National Gallery and the Film Archive of Greece, with the support of the Hellenic Film Center.