Spain, the country that embraced the talent and personality of El Greco commemorates 400 years from his death (7th April 1614), presenting to the public an extended program of exhibitions, lectures, musical concerts, fine arts and performing arts events to honor the great painter.
View of Toledo
Dominikos Theotokopoulos, nick-named El Greco in Venice where he worked in Tiziano’s famous workshop was born in the city of Heraklion in Crete but spent most of his life in Toledo, Spain. Toledo inspired his art and personal life and there he perfected his unique style of depicting religious figures and scenes combining byzantine art traditions with his contemporary western renaissance schools. His breakthrough work was not only admired by his contemporaries but went on to inspire modern art.
Most of the artist’s masterpieces are permanently hosted in Madrid’s Prado Museum and in Toledo (where his house is also located, restored as a museum) but for the occasion dozens more will be arriving on loan from great museums of the world, such as the Paris Louvre, the National Gallery of London, New York’s Metropolitan Museum, St. Petersburg’s Hermitage and many more.
The Prado Museum organizes an exhibition titled “El Greco and Contemporary Art” focusing on the influence the artist’s work has had in the development of 19th and 20th century art, as demonstrated by the works of Pablo Picasso, Oscar Kokoschka, Jackson Pollock a.o. (Museo del Prado, Madrid, 24 June – 5 October).
The burial of the Count of Orgaz, Toledo, Spain
In Toledo’s Santa Cruz Museum and a number of venues around the city, an unprecedented voluminous exhibition of the artist’s works is already running, titled “The Greek of Toledo” (14 March – 14 June). Another exhibition “El Greco: Arts and Crafts” will present works that have never before been exhibited in the country (8 September – 9 December).
The El Greco Foundation of Spain provides detailed information about the 2014 tribute, as well as a comprehensive outlook on the artist’s itinerary, creativity and cultural importance (elgreco2014.com).
Baptism, Heraklion, Greece
In Crete, throughout the summer until October 2014 the artist’s birthplace will be organizing a multitude of cultural and educational events, including a youth festival (Ammoudara) and a symposium (Fodele, El Greco’s house of birth and Museum). An exhibition titled “Theotokopoulos between Venice and Rome” focusing around the paintings owned by the Historical Museum of Crete (Heraklion) will be launched in June and will travel to the Benaki Museum (central building) in Athens.
The artist’s signature
In November at the Greek capital city the Byzantine Museum organizes an exhibition on the “Art and Society during El Greco’s era” and the Cycladic Art Museum will present “The Battle of Lepanto and Domincos Theotokopoulos”. The Benaki Museum’s contemporary arts building will give the opportunity to Athens audiences to get acquainted with El Greco’s “Circle of friends in Toledo”, i.e. the artist’s contemporary social and cultural entourage in his beloved Spanish city.
Sophia Nikolaou
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