T

T

he latest exhibition, or
rather re-exhibition, of
collections belonging to
the National Gallery
covers four centuries of

Modern Greek painting and
sculpture with 500 works, and after
a radical rearrangement of the
exhibits in line with new perceptions
about the role of museums, the
exhibition presents an art

panorama.  
The way in which the exhibition has
been arranged is considered
pioneering. Instead of the
traditional chronological
arrangement, or an arrangement
according to the artists, the gallery
has chosen to arrange the exhibits
on the basis of their subject matter,
at least as far as the main exhibits,
works of the 19th and 20th

centuries, are concerned. 
Thus, a kind of dialogue has been
developed between works by various
artists with the same subject matter,
an arrangement which offers the
visitors an overview of the different
subjects, enabling them to
comprehend the various artistic
approaches to the same subject
throughout different periods, both
in terms of time and social change. 

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Panorama of 

G

reek 

A

rt

in the National Gallery

by 

Maria Katergari

The strategy of the exhibition
therefore is to provide an overview
of the concerns of Greek society
over the last two centuries. Because
of special historical circumstances,
modern Greek art has not evolved
organically, as the Director of the
Museum, Mrs. Lambraki, stated.
Thus, the arrangement of the works
strictly on a basis of art history, as
found in other European museums,
was not appropriate. 

The 19th Century

In the first years after
Independence, during the reign of
King Otto (1832 - 1862), we
recognised the leading ideological
role that historical painting is called
upon to play: promotion,
idealisation and commemoration of
the Struggle became a vital
demands for the existence of the
new state. The early Greek
portraiture offer an image of the
rising middle class in the new
Greece, giving a clear indication of
its rural origins. The early landscape
painting does not depict a real
Greece, but rather an idealised one,

with many ruins, illuminated not by
the midday sun but by the eternal
light of romantic nostalgia. As far as
artistic style is concerned,
Academicism destroys the response
of the viewer, destroys any possible
source of inspiration, as the style of
art produced is determined more by
the level of the recipient
(expectations) than by the centres

which cast their light upon it.
In this period, we come across
creation through the romantic
philhellenic gaze of Peter von Hess
and Ludwig Thiersch, and Greece's
own Theodoros Vryzakis and
Dionysios Tsokos.     
During the second period of the
19th century (1862 - 1900), a time
when the middle class matured and

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The latest exhibition, or rather 

re-exhibition, of collections belonging 

to the National Gallery covers four

centuries of Modern Greek painting and

sculpture with 500 works, and after 

a radical rearrangement of the exhibits 

in line with new perceptions about the

role of museums, the exhibition 

presents an art panorama

the School of Munich and its great
masters were dominant, 
the main subject matter began to
change. Historical painting gave way
to genre painting and its variants,
(e.g. Orientalism, etc.) and the
schools of art which specialised in
genre painting (Munich, Paris etc)
gained sway. Genre painting, an
idealised version of realism, became
the refuge of middle class nostalgia,
its own fake paradise. Upper class
portraiture, composed within an
emblematic framework, differed
radically from the unnaturally posed
portraits of the first period. Still life
glorified the material goods of the
new order. Landscape painting
stopped depicting the world through
the eyes of romantic travellers: it
became realistic, rural, while it
began too to be moved by the first

tremblings of impressionism.
Works of the great masters of the
19th century are on display, such as
Nikiphoros Lytras, Nikolaos Ghyzis,
Constantinos Volanakis, Georgios
Iakovidis, Constantinos Panorios,
Pericles Pantazis, Aristidis
Oikonomou, who have all been
considered masters of genre
painting and portraiture.
Together with this, though, another
form, one which spans the centuries
and exceeds all the others in terms
of numbers of works produced, is
portraiture. In the exhibition, this
form is encountered in idealism, in
idealised lifestyles, for example in
the works of Vryzakis, the
Margaritis brothers, Kriezis, in the
nationalist style of Pitze, in the
romanticism of Zacharias and
Pitsamanos, in the realism of Lytras,

Ghyzis, Lembesis, and at its highest
point, in the expressionism of
Bouzionis in the 20th century.              

The 20th Century

The 20th century saw a turn towards
a new political, social and artistic
reality. New Greek modernism is
rural. The new hierarchy brings to
the fore a post-impressionist concern
together with by a demand which is
not merely aesthetic but also
idealistic: the chromatic
interpretation of Greek sunlight.
Also, an almost permanent feature
of the rhetoric which has been
produced in relation to artistic
creation in Greece is the focus on
hellenocentric ideology, especially
when there have been historical
reasons for this, such as the Asia
Minor catastrophe of 1922.

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The 20th century

saw a turn towards

a new political,

social and artistic

reality. New Greek

modernism is rural.

The new hierarchy

brings to the fore a

post-impressionist

concern together

with by a demand

which is not merely

aesthetic but also

idealistic: the

chromatic

interpretation of

Greek sunlight

1922 represented a landmark in the
changing direction of modern
Greek art in the interwar period.
The national humiliation of the Asia
Minor catastrophe was to be the
spur for an upturn, a reflection of
the post-war change in direction
towards order and tradition that was
a feature of European art. The title
which introduces this section is
"From Feeling to Thinking."
Starting from a temporary phase of
ruralism, based on observation,
Greek artists turned to an inner
intellectual image, with
Constantinos Parthenis at the head
of the movement. This change,
together with a return to
anthropocentrism, was to lead in
various directions. Painters would
look for new sources of inspiration,
both from tradition and from
modern influences. These trends
were to be crystallised in the 1930's
Generation. A restless generation,
concerned and, conflictingly, both
extroverted (it followed events in
Europe with great attention) and
introverted (wanting to establish the
teachings of modernism within
native tradition). 
In this period, we come across
works by Costas Parthenis,
Konstantinos Maleas, Theophrastos
Triantafyllidis, Georgos Bouzionis,
etc.
During the post-war period, when
the middle class art began to search
for its own roots, for self knowledge,
for theories about Greekness, new
subjects based on these concerns
began to appear, with the work of
masters of the 30's such as Yannis
Moralis, Yannis Tsarouchis. Nikos
Chatzikyriakos-Ghikas, Diamantis
Diamantopoulos. Nikos Egnopoulos
and after the war Spyros Vasiliou,
Niki Karagatsis, Nikos Nikolaou,
etc.  
The two trends in post-war
modernism, figurative art (Tetsis,
Mavroedis, Kokkinidis, Mytaras
etc.) and abstract art
(Kontopoulos, Spyropoulos,
Lefakis, etc.) are prominent in the
exhibition of the National Gallery,
with examples of some very

important works. 
In the year 2000, the National
Gallery celebrated its 100th
anniversary. Even though its most
important exhibits have been
displayed over the last decade in
special exhibitions, (Women in
Modern Greek Art, Greek
Landscapes, etc.), the museum did
not have the proper technological
facilities nor suitable premises to be
able to exhibit its treasures
effectively in line with
contemporary museum practice and
security standards for the protection
of the works. 
With the painstaking care of the
museum's director, 
Mrs. M. Lambraki, the interior of
the Museum has been refurbished
and modernised from top to
bottom.

Future Plans

For the Autumn of 2001, the
National Gallery is preparing a
great retrospective exhibition
dedicated to N. Ghyzis in honour 
of the 100th anniversary of his
death. In 2002, a very important
exhibition will take place 
which is being organised together
with the Longhi Institute of
Florence and the internationally
known art historian 
Ms. Mina Gregori, who is
collaborating with the curator, 
Mrs. Angela Tamvaki. The
exhibition will be entitled "Under
the Light of Apollo. Greece and 
the Italian Renaissance."
Finally, we should note that 
the current exhibition is sponsored
by the "Stavros S. Niarchos
Institute." 

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