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Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-11-14
CONTENTS
[01] Exhibition of Piet de Jong works opens in Athens
[01] Exhibition of Piet de Jong works opens in Athens
An exhibition featuring the works of noted 20th century artist Piet de
Jong, best known for his celebrated watercolor illustrations of
antiquities and artifacts uncovered at numerous archaeological
excavations around Greece before and after WWII, opened at the Benaki
Museum's Pireos Street Annex on Monday.
The exhibition consists of roughly 150 watercolors and ink drawings by
de Jong, a British national who was also an architect, with detailed
illustrations of finds from the American School of Classical Studies at
Athens' excavations at the Agora.
According to the Benaki, other watercolors depict sites at the Palace
of Minos at Knossos, the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Corinth, Mycenae,
Eleusis and elsewhere, as well as caricatures of the great
archaeologists of his day.
"Piet de Jong's decades of work in Greece were testament to the
scholarly commitment of many peoples from many countries to the study
of ancient Greece; and the development from that study of ideals that
are fundamental to modern life and thought. Tonight, therefore, we
appreciate one man's work, but through that work we continue to learn
and appreciate the work and contributions of the ancient world," US
ambassador to Greece Charles Ries said during a brief address
inaugurating the exhibition.
The exhibition, entitled "Piet de Jong: The Ancient Agora and the Art
of Antiquity", is organised by the American School of Classical Studies
at Athens and the Benaki Museum, and sponsored by the Institute for
Aegean Prehistory (major sponsor) and the US embassy in Athens
(sponsor). It will run until Jan. 7, 2007.
Caption: A copy of a caricature of archaeologist Carl William Blegen
(1887-1971), drawn by de Jong in 1925, and displayed at the Benaki
Museum, Monday, Nov. 13, 2006. ANA-MPA / Benaki Museum photo.
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