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The Teriade Museum
In the southern Mitilene suburb of Vareia
(served by buses from the local bus station -
look for ΒΑΡΕΙΑ on the destination board)
this is a must for anyone with an interest in 20th century art .
Teriade (real name Stratis Eleftheriades)
was a native of Mitilene who went to Paris in 1915 at the age of eighteen to study law.
Instead he became an art critic, patron, and, most importantly, publisher.
From 1937 to 1975 he commissioned most of the significant artists of the first half of the century to produce series of works for his quarterly journal
'Verve', or the later 'Grands Livres'.
The results are displayed here in sixteen rooms over two floors of the mansion
which he gave to the city in 1979.
 Teriade by Giacometti 1960
"..lithographs, engravings, woodblock prints
and watercolours by the likes of Miró, Chagall, Picasso,
Matisse, Le Corbusier, Léger, Roualt and Villon...
an astonishing collection for a relatively remote Aegean island,
and one which deserves a leisurely perusal."
(Marc Dubin, Rough Guide to the Dodecanese and the East Aegean,
1999 edition)
A smaller building in the grounds houses the Theophilos Museum,
devoted to the works of the local naive painter Theophilos Hadzimichaïl,
who was discovered and supported in his later years by Teriade.
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