Tag: greece

Voula Papaïoannou

The Photography of Voula Papaïoannou

Born at the historic city of Lamia in 1898, Voula Papaïoannou was a Greek photographer known for her documentation of the landscape and inhabitants of Greece. Her oeuvre is part of the School of Humanist Photography that emerged in the middle of the twentieth-century after the two World Wars. Instead of momentous events, humanist photography focused on everyday human experience, its nature, mannerisms and customs. 

Voula Papaïoannou studied at the Polytechnic University of Athens where she developed an interest in photography. She began her career in the 1930s with several exhibitions of refined, nostalgic images of Greece’s landscape, its architectural monuments, and ancient works of art. However, Papaïoannou’s relationship with the photographic medium shifted drastically at the onset of the Second World War. Deeply affected by the suffering endured by the civilian population of Athens, she began to use her camera to arouse the conscience of the people. 

Papaïoannou began to document the conflict’s background, her nation’s preparation for the war effort, and the departure of Greek soldiers to the front lines. She continued her work by documenting the period of German and Italian occupation and the ensuing economic blockade. Papaïoannou also created an emotional photographic series that revealed the emaciated children who were suffering from the great famine of 1941 to 1942.

Greece suffered comparatively much more than most Western European countries during the Second World War due to a number of factors. Heavy resistance led to immense German reprisals against civilians. Greece was also dependent on food imports; the British naval blockade coupled with transfers of agricultural produce to Germany led to a great famine. It is estimated that the Greek population declined by seven per cent during the Second World War. The country’s population also was affected by the rising hyperinflation, the fifth worst in economic history.

After the liberation of Greece, Voula Papaïoannou became a member of the photographic unit under the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation, a body dedicated  to assist and repatriate refugees. She toured the Greek countryside documenting the hardships of its rural population devastated by the 1944-1949 Civil War. The most well-known of all Papaïoannou’s work are her photographs which showed families and particularly children living under inhumane conditions. These photographs did not dwell on the sufferings of its subjects but rather told individual stories that focused on their dignity.

Papaïoannou’s work throughout the 1950s expressed Greece’s prevailing optimism, despite its two decades of suffering and thousand of deaths, in both the restoration of its traditional values and the future of mankind. Her photographs of the historic Greek landscape, shot during this period, were barren and drenched in light. Papaïoannou’s images of the Greek inhabitants, however, still showed a proud and independent people despite their poverty. 

In addition to work published in the press, two collections of Voula Papaïoannou’s photographs were produced by the Swiss publishing house Guilde du Livre: the 1953 “La Grèce: à Ciel Ouvert (Greece: Open Skies)” and “Iles Grecques (Greek Islands)” in 1956. Her work was later published in the posthumous collection “Images of Despair and Hope: Greece 1940-1960” as a complimentary volume to the 1995 Athens retrospective presented by gallery owners Mouseio Benake and Renes Xippas.

Voula Papaïoannou passed away in Athens, Greece in 1990 at the age of ninety-two. Her photographs are in both private and public collections, including the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture in Athens. Since her death, Papaïoannou’s work continues to be presented in many solo and group exhibitions including one at Barcelona’s cntemporary art and learning center, La Virreina Image Center.

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture’s website is located at: https://www.benaki.org/index.php?lang=en

Note: All images of Voula Papaïoannou’s work in this article are from the collection of the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture unless otherwise noted. 

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Voula Papaïoannou”, Date Unknown, Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, Athens, Greece

Second Insert Image: Voula Papaïoannou, “View of Lycabettus from the Acropolis, Athens”, circa 1950, Gelatin Silver Print, 43 x 41.9 cm, Benaki Museum, Athens Greece

Third Insert Image: Voula Papaïoannou, “Women Transporting Mud for Road Construction, Sellades, Arta Prefecture”, 1946, Gelatin Silver Print, 43 x 34 cm, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

Bottom Insert Image: Voula Papaïoannou, “Mykonos”, circa 1959, Gelatin Silver Print, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

Alekos Fassianos

Alekos Fassianos, “Hard to Get”, 1983, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 70 cm, Private Collection

The Greek painter Alekos Fassianos was born in Athens in 1935. He graduated from the Athens Academy of Fine Arts, then moved to Paris in 1960 to study lithography at the Paris National School of Arts. In his early career he designed stage decoratins for both modern and classic productions. He currently lives and paints in Athens, Greece.

Reblogged with many thanks to http://thunderstruck9.tumblr.com

Centaur and Lapith

Centaur and Lapith, Metope South XXVII, Acropolis of Athens, Greece

The metopes of the Parthenon are the surviving set of what were originally 92 square carved plaques of Pentelic marble originally located above the columns of the Parthenon peristyle on the Acropolis of Athens. If they were made by several artists, the master builder was certainly Phidias. They were carved between 447 or 446 BC. or at the latest 438 BC, with 442 BC as the probable date of completion. Most of them are very damaged. Typically, they represent two characters per metope either in action or repose.

Antoine Malliarakis Mayo

Antoine Malliarakis Mayo, “La Vie Augmente Toujours (Life Always Evolves”), Oil on Canvas, 1970,   81 x 65cm

Antoine Malliarakis Mayo is a Greek painter of French culture. He is generally classified as a surrealist, a movement in which he participated actively but never officially joined. Received at the Beaux Arts in Paris in 1924, Mayo took part in the Surrealist meetings and became friends with Desnos and Prévert.

In the 1940s May created costumes and sets for theater and for the cinema with increasing success. After having made the costumes for Marcel Carné’s masterpiece  “Les Enfants du Paradis”, he designed the costumes for: “The Beauty of the Devil” and “The Golden Helmet (The Land of the Pharaohs)” by Howard Hawks.

The paintings of Mayo revolved around the common themes of sensuality and eroticism which took different forms within his oeuvre. In particular after the 1960s, Mayo would paint the hands, then the bird nests – which for him housed and protected the root of life – followed by the egg, as these common themes reached a pinnacle within his scope of work.

The egg for Mayo represented the principle of life, rebirth and the fruit of life. “La Vie Augmente Toujours”, painted in the later part of Mayo’s artistic career is an exceptional work weaving through this visual language created by Mayo incorporating the vegetal life, the egg, the stones and the male figure.

Psarantonis, Nikos Stratakis and George Nikiforos Zervakis, “I Have a Thought. . .”

Psarantonis, Nikos Stratakis and George Nikiforos Zervakis, “I Have a Thought. . .”

Giorgos Nikiforou Zervakis is a musician and singer from Greece.

Band Membersλαούτο: Μιχάλης Παχάκης
κιθάρα: Δημήτρης Ζωγραφάκης
κόντρα μπάσο: Μιχάλης Μπουτσάκης
τύμπανα – κρουστά: Νίκος Παγωμένος

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Lucas Samaras

Lucas Samaras, “Book 4″, Wood, Nails, Needles, Glass, Beads

Lucas Samaras is a Greek artist born in Kastoria, Greece in 1936. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met artists Alan Kaprow and George Segal. Samaras participated in Kaprow’s “Happenings” and posed for Segal’s plaster sculptures. His work included painting, sculpture, performance art, and photography. Samaras worked with multi-media collages, and, by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film, created a series he called “Photo-Transformations”.

“Book 4” is a multifaceted object and a miniature world in istelf. Although it includes eight fictional narratives writen by the artist and surprises such as pop-ups, pockets, interlocking layers, foldouts, and hidden pamphlets, it is not a storybook. Encrusted with needles and shards of glass in addition to brightly colored beads and pieces of mirror, it is difficult if not dangerous to handle, guarding the secrets within.

Reblogged with thanks to https://annleckie.tumblr.com

George Christakis

Photography by George Christakis

George Christakis is a twenty eight year old photographer born in Crete who mixes photography and digital painting. His style can be described as a mix of conceptual, experimental and surreal, with more emphasis on the content and composition. He began by taking pure photographs on the streets, but soon raised his interest in creating his own dreamlike images.

Most of the images were created by digitally manipulating pure photographs. They often depict a sole protagonist – the only person in sight – experiencing intense or emotional situations in strange environments.

“I usually create pictures with some moody, strange environments, and maybe unusual colors. I suffer from color blindness; therefore I can’t really see the true colors. In the past I used to work only with black and white pictures. Now I’m trying the colors as well, hoping that I won’t do something excess.

There are only one or two characters in my images. I want to create a dreamlike picture, a strange world where our protagonist should be alone, without having someone to share the moment. That’s an important factor for me. My personal view is that moments are mostly made to be shared. We share moments with each other every day and create some feelings, mood, etc, together. There are also some daydreaming, or just dream moments, where we are alone without having the ability to share our fantasy picture with others.” – George Christakis

Achilles Vaslielou

Achilles Vaslielou, War Memorial of the Battle of Salamis, Greece, Bronze

This war memorial monument is the work of sculptor Achilles Vasileiou, in honor of the Greeks who fought in the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC. The monument is located on the Kynosoura peninsula, Salamis Island of Greece.

The Battle of Salamis marked the turning point in the Greco-Persian wars. After Salamis, the Peloponnesus, and by extension Greece as an entity, was safe from conquest; and the Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale (as well as severe material losses). At the following battles of Plataea and Mycale, the threat of conquest was removed, and the Allies were able to go on the counter-offensive.

The Greek victory allowed Macedon to revolt against Persian rule; and over the next 30 years, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and finally Ionia would be removed from Persian control by the Allies, or by the Athenian-dominated successor, the Delian League. Salamis started a decisive swing in the balance of power toward the Greeks, which would culminate in an eventual Greek victory, severely reducing Persian power in the Aegean.

Thanks to http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

Sebastian Castro, “Theban”

Sebastian Castro, “Theban”

The Sacred Band of Thebes (Hieròs Lókhos) was a troop of picked soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. Its predominance began with its crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra in 371BC. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

According to Plutarch, the 300 hand-picked men were chosen by Gorgidas purely for ability and merit, regardless of social class. It was composed of 150 male couples, each pair consisting of an older erastês (ἐραστής, “lover”) and a younger erômenos (ἐρώμενος, “beloved”). Athenaeus of Naucratis also records the Sacred Band as being composed of “lovers and their favorites, thus indicating the dignity of the god Eros in that they embrace a glorious death in preference to a dishonorable and reprehensible life”; while Polyaenus describes the Sacred Band as being composed of men “devoted to each other by mutual obligations of love”.

The origin of the “sacred” appellation of the Sacred Band is unexplained by Dinarchus and other historians. But Plutarch claims that it was due to an exchange of sacred vows between lover and beloved at the shrine of Iolaus (one of the lovers of Hercules) at Thebes. He also tangentially mentions Plato’s characterization of the lover as a “friend inspired of God”.

After the success of his previous video, “Bubble” earlier this year, über-hot Manila-based popster Sebastian Castro is back with a new clip entitled “Theban”, skillfully directed by Ian Galsim, featuring a tribe of scantily-clad dancers but sans actor Enchong Dee. Openly gay, the Peruvian-Japanese artist stated that the Sacred Band of Thebes was an ancient Greek army composed entirely of gay men. “It was believed that if you fought next to the person you loved, you would fight much harder to keep them alive. This led the generals to have the lovers fight alongside one another in battle. I can’t think of anything more beautiful -beautiful and sexy… I love the idea of dragging my followers, or any LGBT for that matter, into this world where you are fighting with, fighting for and possibly dying for the one you love. The ultimate message : you belong. Two words gay kids don’t hear enough. Two words they don’t feel enough”, he said.

Adam Martinakis

Digital Artwork by Adam Martinakis

Adam Martinakis has lived and worked in Cannock, UK since 2012, and is currently contemplating moving again. This time for a longer stay in Poland. He was born in Lubań, Poland in 1972. His Mother is Polish and his father Greek. In 1982, he moved to Greece with his family, where he resided until his recent move to the UK. Adam Martinakis  completed his studies at Technological Educational Institute of Athens under the faculty of Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts & Industrial Design. He has subsequently freelanced for the digital media industry and lectured at art institutes.

Adam Martinakis has won a string of awards for his digital art and is a member of CultureInside, slashTHREE, Artia & Art.lica International Art Collectives as well as Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece. His digital artwork is available in very limited editions.

The Marble Lion

Marble Statue of a Lion, Greece, 400-390 BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 31.25 x 63.5 Inches

Marble statues of lions were used as monuments or guardians at the ends of a large tomb facade. This Greek statue was taken by the Romans to Rome during the Imperial Period.  In archaeology, that term is usually taken to cover the period from the rule of Augustus and his reformation around 30 BC until the beginning of the onset of the Migration period at 375 AD.