Greece - Korina Miller [39]
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EL GRECO
One of the geniuses of the Renaissance, El Greco (‘The Greek’ in Spanish), was in fact a Cretan named Dominikos Theotokopoulos. His grounding in the tradition of late-Byzantine fresco painting was during a time of great artistic activity in Crete, following the arrival of painters fleeing Ottoman-held Constantinople.
In his early 20s, El Greco went to Venice but came into his own after he moved to Spain in 1577, where his highly emotional style struck a chord with the Spanish. He lived in Toledo until his death in 1614. His fight for art and freedom was the subject of a €7 million biopic El Greco (2007).
A handful of El Greco’s works are in Greece. In Athens you can see Concert of Angels, The Burial of Christ and St Peter at the National Art Gallery, as well as two signed works in the Benaki Museum. El Greco’s View of Mt Sinai, The Monastery of St Catherine and Baptism of Christ hang in Iraklio’s Historical Museum of Crete.
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With little artistic output under Ottoman rule, modern Greek art per se started after independence, when painting became more secular in nature. Artists specialised in portraits, nautical themes and representations of the War of Independence, including major 19th-century painters such as Dionysios Tsokos, Theodoros Vryzakis, Nikiforos Lytras and Nicholas Gyzis, who was a leading artist of the Munich school (where many Greek artists of the day went). Lytras’ The Naughty Grandchild set a record for a Greek artist when it was sold for more than €1 million at a London auction in 2006.
From the first decades of the 20th century, artists such as Konstantinos Parthenis, Fotis Kontoglou, Konstantinos Kaleas and, later, the expressionist George Bouzianis were able to use their heritage and incorporate various developments in modern art.
Significant artists of the ’30s generation were cubist Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghikas, surrealist 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 and Alekos Fassianos.
Many internationally known Greek artists live abroad, including Paris-based Pavlos, known for his distinctive use of paper, and kinetic artist Takis. New York–based artists include neon installation artist Stephen Antonakos and sculptor/painter Chryssa.
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For a comprehensive rundown of arts and cultural events and exhibitions around Greece, check out www.elculture.gr.
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Athens has a burgeoning contemporary arts scene Click here, with regular shows by local and international artists at a host of galleries centred mostly in Psyrri, Kolonaki and Metaxourghio. A much-anticipated new Museum of Contemporary Art is being built at the former Fix brewery in Athens. The National Art Gallery in Athens and the Rhodes Art Gallery have the most extensive collections of 20th-century art. You can also see work by leading contemporary artists in the Athens metro.
SCULPTURE
The extraordinary sculptures of Ancient Greece hold pride of place in the collections of the great museums of the world, revered for their beauty and form.
Prehistoric Greek sculpture has been discovered only recently, most notably the remarkable figurines produced in the Cyclades from the high-quality marble of Paros and Naxos in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Their primitive and powerful forms have inspired many artists since.
Displaying an obvious debt to Egyptian sculpture, the marble sculptures of the Archaic period are true precursors of the famed Greek sculpture of the classical period. The artists of this period moved away from the examples of their Asian predecessors and began to represent figures that were true to nature, rather than flat and stylised. For the first time in history a sculpted shape was made to reproduce the