Art & Literature
Modern Greek Art
Works by leading Greek contemporary artists take pride of place
in the Athens metro, but ‘modern’ art is relatively new to Greece. Until
the start of the 19th century, Byzantine religious painting was the
primary art form. There was little artistic output during Ottoman rule,
during which Greece was essentially shielded from the Renaissance.
Byzantine church frescoes and icons were usually decorated with
scenes from the life of Christ and fi gures of the saints; later centuries saw
more detailed narratives such as scenes from the miracles of Christ. The
‘Cretan school’ of icon painting, infl uenced by the Italian Renaissance
and artists fl eeing to Crete after the fall of Constantinople, combined
technical brilliance and dramatic richness.
Modern Greek art per se started after Independence, when paint-
ing became more secular in nature. Artists focussed on portraits,
nautical themes and representations of the War of Independence.
Major 19th-century painters included Dionysios Tsokos, Theodoros
Vryzakis, Nikiforos Lytras and Nicholas Gyzis, a leading artist of the
Munich school (where many Greek artists of the day went).
From the fi rst decades of the 20th century, artists such as Konstan-
tinos Parthenis, Fotis Kontoglou, Konstantinos Kaleas and, later, the
expressionist George Bouzianis used their heritage and incorporated
developments in modern art.
Signifi cant artists of the ’30s generation were cubist Nikos
Hatzi kyriakos-Ghikas, surrealist artist and poet Nikos Engonopoulos,
Yiannis Tsarouhis and Panayiotis Tetsis.
Other leading 20th-century artists include Yannis Moralis, Dimitris
Mytaras, Yannis Tsoklis and abstract artists Yannis Gaitis and Alekos
Fassianos, the latter’s work fetches record prices for a living Greek
artist. Yiannis Kounellis is a pioneer of the Arte Provera movement,
while Giorgos Zongolopoulos is best known for his trademark um-
brella sculptures.
The marble sculpture tradition endures on Tinos, the island that
gave rise to two of the foremost modern Greek sculptors, Dimitrios
Filippotis and Yannoulis Halepas.
GREEK ART SCENEAthens’ burgeoning contemporary arts scene exhibits local and international artists at
galleries centred mostly in Psyrri, Kolonaki and Metaxourghio. The National Art Gallery
has the most extensive collections of Greek 20th-century art, along with the National
Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Sculpture Gallery. The Municipal Gal-
lery of Rhodes has one of the most extensive collections of 20th-century Greek art
outside Athens.Byzantine
churches were
usually decorated
with frescoes
on a dark blue
background with
a bust of Christ
in the dome,
the four Gospel
writers in the
pendentives sup-
porting the dome
and the Virgin
and Child in the
apse.