Medieval Greece

Medieval Greece refers to geographic components of the area historically and in modern terms known as Greece, during the Middle Ages.

These include:

• Byzantine Greece (Early to High Middle Ages)
• Northern Greece under the First Bulgarian Empire
• Various High Medieval Crusader states (Frankish Greece) and Byzantine splinter states such as:
• Latin Empire
• kingdom of Thessalonica
• Principality of Achaea
• Duchy of Athens
• Despotate of Epirus
• Despotate of the Morea
• Northern Greece under the Second Bulgarian Empire (Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria)
• Ottoman Greece (Late Middle Ages)

 

Byzantine Art

Byzantine art is generally characterised by a move away from the naturalism of the Classical tradition towards the more abstract and universal. There is a preference for two-dimensional representations, and for artworks where a religious message predominated. By the 12^th century AD Byzantine art has become much more expressive and imaginative, and although many subjects are endlessly recycled, there are differences in details throughout the period.

Byzantine art is generally divided up into three distinct periods:

• Early Byzantine (330 – 750 AD)
• Middle Byzantine (850 – 1204 AD)
• Late Byzantine (1261 – 1453 AD)

 

During the Early Byzantine period, Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity and moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople, at the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Christianity flourished and gradually replaced the Greco-Roman gods that had once defined Roman religion and culture. This religious shift dramatically affected the art that was created across the empire.

The earliest Christian churches were built during this period, liked the famous Hagia Sophia, which was built in the 6^th century under Emperor Justinian. Decorations for the interior of churches, which included icons and mosaics, were also made during this period. Icons, such as the Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George, served as tools for the faithful as spiritual gateways to the spiritual world.

Mosaics, such as those found in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, sought to evoke the heavenly realm. In this work, ethereal figures seem to float against a gold background that is not representative of any known earthly space. By placing these figures in a spiritual world, the mosaics gave worshippers some access to the spiritual world.

Byzantine art is almost entirely concerned with religious expression and, more specifically, with the impersonal translation of carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms. Its forms of architecture and painting grew out of these concerns and remained uniform and anonymous, perfected within a rigid tradition rather than varied according to personal whim. The result was a sophistication of style and a spirituality of expression rarely paralleled in Western art.

Byzantine art differs greatly from the art of the Romans in that it portrays what we cannot see, namely the intangible world of Heaven and the spiritual. The Greco-Roman interest in depth and naturalism is replaced by an interest in flatness and mystery.

The Middle Byzantine period was a period of crisis for the arts called the Iconoclastic Controversy. The use of religious images was contested. Iconoclasts, who worried that the use of images was idolatrous, destroyed images, leaving few surviving images from the Early Byzantine period. Fortunately, those in favour of the idolatrous images won the fight and hundreds of years of Byzantine artistic productions followed.

The focus during the Middle Byzantine period continued with the stylistic and thematic interest on building churches and decorating the interior. The changes in the empire, did however, bring changes in the arts as well. The influence of the empire spread into the Slavic world with the adoption of Orthodox Christianity by the Russians in the 10^th century. Byzantine art was given new life in the Slavic lands.

Architecture in this period moved towards the centralized cross-in-square plan for which Byzantine architecture is best known. Churches were built on a smaller-scale and the roofline of these churches was always defined by a dome or domes. There was also an increased ornamentation on church exteriors.

This period was also one of increased stability and wealth. Wealthy patrons commissioned private luxury items, which included carved ivories, such as the celebrated Harbaville Tryptich, which was used as a private devotional object and helped the viewer gain access to the heavenly realm.

During the Late Byzantine period, the Empire suffered another crisis, the Latin Occupation. Crusaders from Western Europe invaded and captured Constantinople in 1204, and temporarily toppled the empire to bring the eastern empire back into the fold of western Christendom. By 1261 the Empire freed itself from its western occupiers and stood independent once again, but the power of the empire had shrunk.

Although Constantinople finally fell to the Turks in 1453, Byzantine art and culture continued to live on in its far-reaching outposts, as well as in Greece, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Empire, which started to emerge around the time Constantinople fell, carried on as the heir of Byzantium, with churches and icons created in a distinct Russo-Byzantine style. The pictorial and architectural styles that characterized Byzantine art, first codified in the 6^th century, persisted with remarkable homogeneity within the empire until its final dissolution with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks.

Even in Italy, when the Renaissance emerged, it borrowed heavily from the traditions of Byzantium. Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned of 1280 – 1290 is one of the earliest examples of the Renaissance interest in space and depth in panel painting. But the painting relies on Byzantine conventions and is indebted to the arts of Byzantium.

 

• Artists

During the Byzantine period, the was no distinction between artist and craftsperson, as both created beautiful objects for a specific purpose. Some job titles we know of are zographos and historiographos (painter), maistor (master) and ktistes (creator). Many artists were also priests or monks. Sculptors, ivory workers, and enamellists were specialists who acquired years of training. In other art forms it was however common for the same artist to produce manuscripts, icons, mosaics, and wall paintings.

It was rare for an artist to sign their work prior to the 13^th century AD. This may reflect a lack of social status for the artist, or that works were created by teams of artists. It could also be that personalization of the artwork was considered to detract from its purpose, especially in religious art. Artists were supported by patrons who commissioned their work, which were usually emperors and monasteries but also sometimes private individuals.

 

• Architecture

The earliest Byzantine architecture favoured the extensive use of large domes and vaults. Circular domes were not structurally or visually suited to a longitudinal arrangement of the walls that supported them. By the 10^th century, a radial plan was adopted in most areas that consisted of four equal vaulted arms proceeding from a dome over their crossing. This central radial plan was better suited to the hierarchical view of the universe emphasized by the Eastern church.

This view was made obvious in the iconographic scheme of church art, like the frescoes or mosaics that covered the interiors of domes, walls, and vaults of churches. At the top of the central dome was the figure of Christ Pantocrator, the ruler of the universe. Below him, were angels and archangels and, on the walls, figures of the saints.

The Virgin Mary was also pictured high in a half-dome covering one of the four radial arms. In the lowest realm was the congregation. The whole church formed a microcosm of the universe. This iconographic scheme also reflected liturgy as seen in narrative scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin. Instead of being placed in chronological order along the walls, they were chosen for their significance as occasions for feast days and ranged around the church according to their theological significance.

 

• Sculpture

Not much sculpture was produced in the Byzantine period. Most was used in small relief carvings in ivory, used for book covers, reliquary boxes, and similar objects. However, other miniature arts, embroidery, goldwork, and enamel work, flourished in the sophisticated and wealthy society of Constantinople. Manuscript illumination became important in spreading Byzantine style and iconography through Europe.

Portrait sculpture that was realistic was a characteristic of later Roman art, and the trend continued in early Byzantium. The Hippodrome of Constantinople had bronze and marble sculptures of emperors and popular charioteers. Ivory was also used for figure sculpture, although the Virgin and Child is the only a single free-standing example that survived. Today it is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

 

• Frescos and Paintings

Byzantine Christian art had the purpose of beautifying a building, encouraging the faithful that they were on the correct path to salvation, and instructing the illiterate on matters vital for the welfare of their soul. This was why the interiors of Byzantine churches were covered with paintings and mosaics.

Large Christian basilica buildings, with high ceilings and long side walls, provided an ideal medium to send visual messages to the congregation. However, even the humblest shrines were often decorated with an abundance of frescoes. The subjects were limited to key events and figures of the Bible and even their positioning became conventional. Jesus Christ usually occupied the central dome with the prophets at the barrel of the dome. The evangelists appear on the joins between vault and dome, and in the sanctuary is the Virgin and child. The walls have scenes from the New Testament and the lives of the saints.

Small painted wooden panels were a popular medium during the late-Byzantine period. Paintings for manuscripts were also a valued outlet for painting skills, and these covers both religious subjects and historical events such as coronations and famous battles. From the 13^th AD, individuals are painted with more detail and personality.

The Hagia Sophia in Trabzon houses many such paintings where the subjects seem to have been inspired by real-life models. Colour is also used for a more daring effect, like the use of blues in The Transfiguration which is a manuscript painting in the theological works of John VI Cantacuzenus. The combination of bold colours and fine detail is also seen in the wall paintings of the various Byzantine churches of Mistra in Greece.

The style of these frescoes was static and symbolic. It was based on the dynamic of lines and flat areas of colour rather than form. Individual features were suppressed in favour of a standard facial type, figures were flattened, and draperies were reduced to patterns of swirling lines which gave it a total effect of disembodiment.

The Byzantine image was at once more remote than the naturalistic Classical one. The effect of immediacy was increased by the severely frontal pose and the Byzantine facial type, with its huge eyes and penetrating gaze, and by the characteristic use of a gold background which, in pictures of isolated figures, made the image appear to be suspended somewhere between the wall and the viewer.

 

• Mosaics

Most of the surviving walls and ceiling mosaics portray religious subjects and are found in many Byzantine churches. One of their most prominent characteristics is the use of gold tiles to create a shimmering background to the figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints. The portraiture also follows certain conventions such as a full-frontal view, halo, and general lack of suggested movement. The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople contains the most celebrated examples of such mosaics while one of the most unusually striking portraits in the medium is that of Jesus Christ in the dome of Daphni in Greece. It shows Christ with a rather fierce expression in contrasts with the usual expressionless representation.

The mosaics of the Great Palace of Constantinople, which date to the 6^th century AD, are an interesting mix of scenes from daily life with pagan gods and mythical creatures. It once again highlights that pagan themes were not wholly replaced by Christian ones in Byzantine art.

Another subject for mosaic artists was emperors and their consorts, although these are often portrayed in their role as head of the Eastern Church. Mosaics portraying these are in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Two glittering panels show Emperor Justinian I and his consort Empress Theodora with their entourages.

Byzantine mosaic artists were so famous for their work that the Arab Umayyad Caliphate employed them to decorate the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque of Damascus. As in painting, in the 13^th and 14^th century AD, the subjects in mosaics become more natural, expressive, and individualised.

 

• Icons

While most surviving artworks are religious in subject, there are many references to secular art in Byzantine sources and pagan subjects with classical iconography. Byzantine artists beautified anything from buildings to book, using bright stones, lively wall paintings, gold mosaics, and precious metals, but their legacy is probably the icons that continued to decorate Christian churches all over the globe.

Icons that represented holy figures were created for worship by Byzantine Christians. They are seen in wall paintings, mosaics, and as small artworks made from metal, wood, ivory, enamel, and gemstones. The most familiar form was small painted wooden panels which could be carried or hung on walls. These panels were made using the encaustic technique where coloured pigments were mixed with wax and burned into the wood as an inlay.

Icons is generally portrayed full frontal, with either the full figure shown or only the head and shoulders. Figures often have a halo around them to emphasise their holiness. The artistic approach to icons was remarkably stable over the centuries, as the people and fashions might change but the message did not.

The oldest surviving Byzantine icons are found in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. Dating to the 6^th century AD it portrays Christ Pantokrator, the Virgin and Child. The Pantokrator image is holding a Gospel book in his left hand and performing a blessing with his right. It was probably donated by Justinian I to mark the founding of the monastery.

By the 12^th century AD, painters were producing much more intimate portraits with more expression and individuality. The Virgin of Vladimir, now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, was painted around this time and is an example of this new style with its tender representation of the child pressing his cheek against his mother.

 

• Minor Arts

Byzantine artists were also accomplished metalsmiths, while enamelling was another area of technical expertise. The chalice in the Treasury of Saint Mark’s Venice is an example of both these skills. It is made with a semi-precious stone body and gold stem, decorated with enamel plaques.

Cloisonné enamels were a popular technique probably acquired from Italy in the 9^th century AD. Silver plates stamped with Christian images were also produced in large numbers and used as a dinner service. Another use of metals is coins, which was a medium for imperial portraiture and, images of Jesus Christ.

Potters were accomplished in techniques such as polychrome and designs were incised and given coloured glazes. Items included dishes, plates, bowls, and single-handled cups. Tiles were often painted with representations of holy figures and emperors, sometimes several tiles making up a composite image.

Portable objects decorated with Christian images, included such everyday items as pilgrim tokens, jewellery boxes and pieces, and ivories. Items made from ivory were a speciality of Alexandria. Panels made of ivory were used to especially decorate furniture. The throne of Maximian, Archbishop of Ravenna is an example of a one covered in ivory panels that show scenes from the lives of Joseph, Jesus Christ, and the Evangelists.

Textiles, like linen, wool, silk, and cotton, was another medium used for artistic expression. Designs were woven into the fabric or printed by dipping the cloth in dyes with some parts of the cloth covered in a resistor to create the design.

The importance of Byzantine art to the religious art of Europe cannot be overemphasized. Byzantine forms were spread by trade and invasions to Italy and Sicily, where they persisted through the 12^th century and had an influence on Italian Renaissance art. Through expansion of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Byzantine are spread to eastern European centres, such as Russia, where they remained intact through to the 17^th century.

 

 

Macedonian Art

When describing Macedonian art, it refers to the art of the Macedonian Renaissance in Byzantine art. This period ensued the end of the Byzantine iconoclasm and lasted until the fall of the Macedonian dynasty. It coincided with the Ottonian Renaissance in Western Europe. The Byzantine Empire’s military situation improved in the 9^th and 10^th centuries, which led to a revival of art and architecture.

 

• Painting and mosaic

New churches were commissioned again, and the Byzantine church mosaic style became standardised. Examples that were preserved for today are at the Nea moni Katholikon in the island of Chois and the Hosios Lukas Monastery in mainland Greece. The freely painted frescos at Castelseprio in Italy are also linked to the art period of Constantinople by many art historians.

During this time there was a revival of interest in classical Greco-Roman styles and subjects. The Paris Psalter is a testimony to this, and more sophisticated techniques were used to portray human figures. There was also a naturalistic style and more complex techniques from ancient Greek and Roman art that was mixed with Christian themes.

Portrait painting was an important art in this period. Some famous portraits made in Macedonia are the group portrait of the Paskaca family at Psaca, those of King Milutin and Simonida in Staro Nagoricane, Dusan and Helena at Lesnovo, and the portraits of Volkasin and his son Marko in the church of St. Archangel in Varos and in Marko’s monastery.

 

• Icon painting

During the excavations of the walls of a late-Roman or early Byzantine fortress at Vinica in 1985, archaeologists discovered the foundations of many secular buildings. In the debris they discovered many icons of the early Christianity period that date around the late 4^th century.

The ceramic icons were duplicated using a mould and standardised painting. They were about 30 x 28 x 4 centimetres in size and the inscriptions and signatures were written in Latin.

The most repeated illustrations are those of Archangel Michael and St. Theodore on a horse, dressed in a uniform of a Byzantine soldier. The cross of Emperor Constantine is also presented on several icons, as well as symbolic animals and floral motifs. Other with high artistic qualities are the icons St. Christopher and St. George, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, and The Fruits of the Promised Land.

The oldest icons were discovered in Ohrid, Macedonia and date from the 11^th and early 12^th centuries. These include the icons The Forty Martyrs, St. Vasilij and St. Nicholas, the Holy Virgin of Annunciation with Archangel, and The Communion of the Apostles.

During the 13^th century, the sphere of icon creation teems in such a variety that each virtually represents a unique style. Examples of these are Mother of God Hodegeria, St Barbara, and Jesus Christ Almighty on the Throne.

In the early 14th century, elements of the Palaeologi Renaissance were introduced to icon-painting. This new conception resulting in other artists following suite with a series of icons such as: The Faithless Thomas, The Baptising of Christ, Holy Virgin Episcepsis, and The Resurrection, mostly created by unknown icon painters.

This century was also marked by the Ottoman conquest of Macedonia, and a sharp decline was seen in the quality of icon-painting. This did not stop icon-painting and by the middle of the 15^th century, Zograph Dimitrija of Leunovo and Jovan created icons in the iconostasis of Toplica Monastery near Bitola. Icon-painting continued in the early 16^th century.

 

• Frescoes

The finest works of the Macedonian period include the frescoes in Nerezi, Kurbinovo, Manastir, the Church of St. Nicholas in Varos, the Church of St. Sophia in Ohrid, and the Church of the Holy Virgin Perivleptos.

Macedonia is one of the richest regions in terms of mediaeval wall paintings, both in the Balkans and in Europe as a whole. Over the course of time, many generations of local painters created works of exceptional skill and beauty.

Of the oldest fresco in Macedonia only fragments have been preserved, like in the Strumica Church of the Fifteen Holy Martyrs of Tiberiopolis, which was a local religious subcult of the Macedonian Slavs from the late 9^th and early 10^th centuries.

Under the influence of the East, fresco-painting was developed during the reign of Tsar Samuil. Macedonian artist gave stronger emphasis to the expression of the face and the composition of the paintings are much more explicit.

During the rule of Archbishopric of Ohrid from 1018 to 1767, wall-painting developed strongly as can be seen in the frescoes in Vodoca and in the Church of St Sophia on Ohrid. The frescoes in St Sophia is the most purely Slavonic in the development of Macedonian art and represent the best-preserved works of fresco painting in general.

During the second half of the 12^th century even more beautiful frescoes were painted. The frescoes in Nerezi (1165 – 68), for example The Lamentation, introduce a pronounced expression of the characters. The spirituality of the characters, the refined colours and warm hues make this one unique and exceptional. The Lamentation was painted by an anonymous Nerezi master 140 years before the Italian painter Giotto painted his masterpiece of The Lamentation in the chapel of Scrovennin in Padua. The mother on the Nerezi fresco is portrayed as convulsed by her anguish for her deceased son, the result of her distress and tragedy.

The frescoes of the two great masters in Macedonia, Michail Astrappa and Eutychius in the Church of the Holy Virgin Perivloptos in Ohrid were expressed by the artist in documentary precision. The saints are portrayed as healthy, young people with athletic bodies, full of life. It reveals the drama of a man in general, rather than the drama of the saint.

Many art historians consider that the Macedonian school of fresco-painting directly influenced the Italian Renaissance. Nevertheless, unlike developments in Italy, the Macedonian proto-renaissance was destroyed by the Ottoman conquest which inhibited the bloom of art and caused the art of fresco-painting to stagnate and decay.

 

• Wood carving

Wood carving continued during the 13^th century in Macedonia and was enriched by new elements. Members of the Mijak wood-carver’s school introduced the human figure in their artistic works. This art was not confined to churches and monasteries only and wood carving was seen in mosques, mansions, and houses of wealthy merchants.

Petre Filipovski, from Gari, his brother Marko, and Makarie Frckovski from Galicnik worked on the iconostasis in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Skopje from 1824 to 1829. It was 10 metres long and 6 metres high. Some of the characters in the Biblical scenes are portrayed dressed in Galicnik fold costumes.

Petre and Makarie also carved the iconostasis in the Monastery of St John of Bigor during 1830 to 1840. This is a grandiose example of Macedonian wood carving, which was divided into six horizontal squares in floral and animal ornaments. They also left behind self-portraits among the scenes.

 

• Sculpture

Monumental sculpture is extremely rare in Byzantine art, but during the Macedonian period there was an unprecedented flourishing of ivory sculpture. Many ornamental ivory triptychs and diptychs survived, with the central panel often representing either deesis or the Theotokos.

Ivory caskets, like the Veroli Casket from Victoria and Albert Museum, feature secular motifs true to the Hellenistic tradition, thus testifying to an undercurrent of classical taste in Byzantine art.

 

 

Modern Greece

Modern Greek art refers to art from the period between the emergence of the new independent Greek state and the 20^th century. Mainland Greece was under Ottoman rule for four centuries and not part of the Renaissance and artistic movements that followed in Western Europe.

The Greek islands such as Crete, and the Ionian islands, on the other hand, fell under Venetian rule or other European powers and were able to assimilate the radical artistic change that took place in Europe from the 14^th to the 18^th century.

Two artistic movements that followed the parallel routes to Western Europe were the Cretan School and the Heptanese School of Art. It can be said that Modern Greek art was shaped by the socioeconomic conditions of Greece, the large Greek diaspora across Europe, the new Greek social elite, and the external artistic influences from Germany and France.

 

 

Modern Greek Art

Modern Greek art began to developed around the time of Romanticism when Greek artists absorbed many elements from their European colleagues. This resulted in the total decline of the distinctive style of Greek Romantic art, inspired by revolutionary ideals as well as the country’s geography and history.

Few opportunities arose for an education in the arts in the newly independent Greece after centuries of Ottoman rule. Studying abroad was their only alternative and as Munich was an important centre for the arts at that specific time, the majority of Greek artist chose to study there.

As efforts persisted with new directions and objectives, Greek artists emerging in the world during the first decades of the 19^th century reconnected Greek art with its ancient tradition, as well as with the quests of the European ateliers.

This gave birth to the Greek Munich School of painting. Nikolaos Gysis, being an artist and teacher at the School, became a leading figure among Greek artists. By the end of the 19^th century genre painting, academism, upper middle-class portraiture, realism, still life and landscape painting, was replaced by Art Noveau, Symbolism, and Jugendstil.

During the early-20th-century modernism is also represented by many Greek artists in Munich. Several artists chose subjects from the everyday Greek life, local customs, and living conditions and many important painters emerged at this time. Theodoros Vryzakis, Nikiphoros Lytras, Georgios Jakobides, Georgios Roilos, and Konstantinos Volanakis, is to mention but a few. The Greek influence can be seen in all their work.

Sculptors of the new Greek environment were Georgios Vitalis, Leonidas Drosis, Lazaros Sochos, Ioannis Kossos, Dimitrios Filippotis, Yannoulis Chalepas, Lazaros Fytalis, and Georgios Bonanos.

Some Greek painters studied in Paris at the the French Art Academy but added their own interpretations to their work. The avant-garde Impressionist movement developed during this period in Paris, but most Greek painters remained faithful to the principles of their teachers. Périclès Pantazis was the first Greek impressionist who eventually settled in Belgium and became a part of the avant-garde group Circle de la pâte.

At the beginning of the 20^th century the interest of painters turned toward the study of light and colour. Paris now became the centre of attraction for the artists of the period. Demetrios Galanis, a contemporary and friend of Picasso, achieved wide recognition during this time in France and received a lifelong membership of the Académie Française.

This was followed when Nikos Engonopoulos achieved international recognition with his surrealist conceptions both of painting and poetry. Late in the 1960s Dimitris Mytaras and Yiannis Psychopedis became associated with European critical realism. Impressionism was the original influence on the leading figures of the art of the first half of the 20th century and it was gradually increased as the impressionists and other modern schools heightened their influence.

The period of the 1930s was a milestone for the Greek painters, with Yiannis Tsarouchis, Yiannis Moralis, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Spyros Vassiliou, Alekos Kontopoulos and Spyros Papaloukas coming into the public eye of Greek Art. These painters tried mainly to link leading European trends with Greek tradition.

The second half of the 20th century has seen many widely acclaimed Greek artists being recognised as international artists, painters, and sculptures.

 

 

Contemporary Greek Art

Contemporary Greek Art is referred to as the art by Greek artists after World War II. They work in a variety of mediums of which the following are well known in their respective fields:

 

• Abstract Expressionism

Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997) was an abstract expressionist artist from Lefkas. He lived and worked in New York in the 1940s and 50s and his work has been exhibited throughout the world. Many of the work can be found in major museum collections such as the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of Art.

Dimitris Koukos (1948-) is also a leading expressionist painter, renowned for his abstract work and landscapes. Koukos has exhibited in Athens, Boston, Paris, and Moscow. His work can be found in private collections in the USA, France, Italy, UK, and at the National Gallery in Athens, the Vorres Museum, the Pieridis Museum, the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education in Cyprus, and the Cultural Institute of the National Bank of Greece.

 

• Kinetic Art (sculpture)

Panayiotis Vassilakis, better known as Takis was born in 1925 in Athens. He is an internationally acclaimed self-taught sculptor and has travelled, worked, and exhibited in Athens, London, Paris, New York and in many other cities.

Takis is especially known for his tele magnetic sculpture that formed the basis of his aesthetic expression and his musical sculptures. His musical sculptures are based on the concept of using magnetic waves caused by electricity as a means to activate repeated musical sounds. The sounds are heard every time a needle strikes a string, when attracted by a magnet. He won the Grand Prize at the Paris New Biennale in 1985 for this innovation.

Examples of his work is:

• The installation of a real forest of numerous Signs in the Place de la Defence in Paris
• The illumination of the Arc de Triomphe
• The transformation of the aqueduct at Beauvais into a musical tower with a network of vertical metallic strings
• The design for the layout of a subway station in Toulouse

These features place his artistic inventions among the most important achievements of contemporary, post-World War II art.

 

• Arte povera

For this modern art form, artists may use any medium they could get very cheap, or for free. The most renown Greek representative of arte povera is Jannis Kounellis. He introduced objects that he found in his paintings, such as live animals, fire, earth, burlap sacks, gold, and many more. He also replaced the canvas with bed frames, doorways, windows or simply the gallery itself.

 

• Stuckism

Stuckist painter Odysseus Yakoumakis found the first Greek group of Stuckism International in 2004. Stuckism is an international artistic movement that was created as a reaction to conceptual art.

Yakoumakis’ The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship, oppose the provinciality of the mainstream contemporary Greek art and post-modernism.

 

• Digital Art

One cannot touch on art in the modern age and not mention digital art. Miltos Manetas is one such as artist who makes paintings, video works, prints and performances about video games, players, and computer hardware.

Andreas Angelidakis is another. He is an architect and artist working at the intersection of digital culture and architectural production. He is one of the first artists who saw and treated the internet as a real place, a site where he designed and built online communities such as the Chelsea Project and Nene World.

He also designed and built spaces, which leaves the imagination with wondering whether they were built at all. An example is the Pause pavilion, Stockholm in 2002. Another is a garden of mummified plants used as a virtual horizon for a laser beauty clinic, Forever Laser, Geneva 1998 and 2003. Angelidakis has done projects in Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and the United States for cultural foundations, museums, and publications.

Lydia Venieri, who is a known as painter and mixed media sculptor, also started doing internet art in 1994. Her first art was Fin at the FIAC95. This was followed by Her Story, Apology, aimed at Takis. Her digital work Moonlight was released in 2008 for the iPhone.

 

Greece may be known for its ancient culture and classic art, but it also has vibrant contemporary artists. Some of them are as follows:

• Stephen Antonakos (1926 – 2013)

Stephen Antonakos, a Greek-born American who died in New York City, was a sculptor known for his abstract sculptures. His works have been exhibited at major international art exhibition. His work can be seen in many important museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. In 2011, Antonakos received the National Academy of Design lifetime achievement

 

• Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas (1906 – 1994)

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas was a prolific painter, sculptor, engraver, and writer. In 1923 he went to Paris to study French Literatu and Esthetics at the Sorbonne University as well as the Académie Ranson, where he studied painting. He held his first exhibition at Gallerie Percier in 1927.

He was the co-founder of the Armos art group and represented Greece at the 1950 Venice Biennale. Being a member of the Academy of Athens, the Royal Academy in London, and the Tiberiana Academy in Rome, Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, he gained international fame and exhibited all over the world. He is especially known for his Greek landscapes and after his death his home was transformed into a museum run by the Benaki museum.

 

• Chryssa (1933 – 2013)

Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali, professionally known as Chryssa was a Greek American artist known for her work in light art. She studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaudière in Paris and moved to the United States. Guggenheim hosted a solo exhibition of her works in 1961, followed by an exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. She returned to Greece and set up her art studio in the Neos Kosmos in 1992. One of her art pieces is displayed in the vestibule of Evangelismos metro station.

 

• Christos Caras (1930 -)

Christos Caras studied political sciences at Panteion University before enrolling at the School of Fine Arts and in Paris at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His first solo exhibition was held in Athens, though he had participated in many group exhibitions before all over the world. His style ranges from figurative to abstract and surreal art. He was honoured in 2011 by the Academy of Athens for his lifelong artistic contribution and resides in Athens today.

 

• Alekos Fassianos (1935 -)

Alekos Fassianos studied at the Athens Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Paris in 1960 to study lithography at the Paris National School of Arts. During his lifetime he exhibited in the top world museums, such as Athens, New York, Paris, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo. In 2013, he received the French award of the Celebrities of the Officer of the Legion of Honour. Although he lives and works in Athens, he still considers France his second home.

 

• Panayiotis Tetsis (1925 – 2016)

Panayiotis Tetsis grew up on the little island of Hydra. He went tot the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1949 and did his post graduate studies in Paris at the L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1953-56. He specialized in the art of engraving, mostly known for his post-impressionistic seascapes. Tetsis was part of the Armos art group together with other Greek artists.

 

• Chryssa Romanos (1931 – 2006)

Chryssa Romanos lived in Athens until 1961 before she moved to Paris. She returned to Greece twenty years later. During her time in Paris she developed her artistic temperament and met Nikos Kessanlis, her future companion. Romanos’ work ranges from abstract painting, collage and décollage.

 

• Lucas Samaras (1936 -)

Lucas Samaras is from Kastoria, Greece and he studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship. Known as a sculptor, and painter, he regularly used images of himself as subject. In 1973, he produced a series of self-portraits with the wet dyes of Polaroid prints. He participated in many solo exhibitions and represented Greece at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

 

• Jannis Kounellis (1936 – 2017)

Jannis Kounellis is a Greek-Italian sculptor known and seen as the pioneer in the arte povera movement. He moved to Rome in 1956 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. He became a regular contributor to the Venice Biennale and held his first solo exhibition at La Tartaruga Gallery in 1960. The subject of his solo exhibitions at international museums was known for his use of everyday materials, such as steel, stones, or coal, in his work.

 

• Takis (1925 – 2019)

Panagiotis Vassilakis, better known as Takis was a self-taught sculptor. He left Greece in 1954 and travelled around Europe and the USA, exhibiting in Athens, Paris, London, and New York. In 1958, he started experimenting with magnetic fields and became known for his telemagnetic sculptures. He is considered a pioneering artist in the international art scene and a leading representative of kinetic art. In 1960, the French Ministry of Industry awarded him a patent for Telesculpture and Electromagnetic Telesculpture. His works can be found in many public locations in and around Paris, such as Le Bassin, at La Défense.