A unique private collection of 230 prints and prints, which includes works by internationally renowned and recognized Greek artists, has been in the possession of the University of Thessaly since February 2022.

However, just recently, the university announced that it intends to organize the first public presentation of a part of this collection, which is a donation from Catherine Papageorgiou-Belazi, by the end of the year.

The exhibition will take place in a new exhibition space: on the first floor of the preserved Tsikrikis mansion, in the center of Volos. As Sotiris Bahtsetsis, assistant professor of culture, creative media and industries at the university, told us, the exhibition will be “the first in a series of actions related to the preservation, study and development of the collection through purchases and donations from artists.” “.

A truly loving relationship connects the University of Thessaly with the collection of Pietro Belazzi and Caterina Papageorgiou-Belazzi. After all, such was the relationship of the Italian professor of sociology at the University of Bologna with his Bologna wife, and their collection was created from the sincere love of both for art, which included works by Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, among others, Dorothea White, Giannis Moralis, Tassos Alevizou, Voulas Masura , Vassos Katraki and others.

Characteristically, the collector describes the acquisition of one of the works: “Paris, a summer day in 1975. I discover in the corner of the gallery a showcase with engravings by French engravers and among them a woodcut by Dimitris Galanis, from 1922. It is according to the famous work: “Still life with a pipe.” My heart is beating. I go to the responsible. Is this the work of Dimitris Galanis, a Greek engraver who lived in Paris? I asked him. I ask the price. I’m amazed that’s the cost of a meal for four friends at a nearby bistro. She sees my excitement and whispers: “You know, the French don’t like woodcuts.” I pick up a package of engravings, leave the gallery, sit down somewhere nearby on a bench to calm down, and call my Pietro. I’m happy”.

The art collection is accompanied by a 3,000-volume bibliographic archive of comparable quality and volume, which will be housed with the works, creating a unique research archive of prints. Thus, the collection will become a pole of attraction for researchers and art lovers from all over the world through the creation of a curated program of periodic presentations. The exhibition, scheduled for the first phase of the opening of the donation to the public, will select 78 small and medium-sized works, and will host an installation by 64 different artists from Greece and abroad.

The curatorial proposal focuses mainly on highlighting the choice of collectors trying to erase the “biography” of the collection for viewers, beyond the exhibition’s idiosyncratic textural nature, which illuminates the path of a collection that began to take shape in the 1970s.