Title: "Homada technē"
Description: "2017 marks the 100th anniversary since the creation of the famous "Techni Group", which has been identified--in the consciousness of those who deal with the history of modern Greek art--with the birth of modernism in Greece. Was the role of the "Techni Group" so crucial, in the few years that it was active? Did it truly revitalize the art scene in the capital, which was oversaturated with the long-standing dominance of the Munich School? What was the Group's relationship with Venizelos' policy, which embraced the young artists' initiative from the very first moment? The anniversary of the centenary offers an opportunity for a fresh look on the "Techni Group" through a showcasing of the works themselves. The "Techni Group" (Omada Techni / "Art Group") was created on the initiative of Nikolaos Lytras (1883-1927), son of the famous Munich School painter Nikiforos Lytras. Nikolaos was thirty-four years old and was already established as a painter with bold innovations in his work. Most of the artists in the Group were friends and peers of Lytras. They were all born in and around the 1880s, except for Odysseus Fokas (1857-1946) and the younger Perikles Vyzantios (1893-1974). Among them, we find notable names such as the Alexandrian, Konstantinos Parthenis (1878-1967) or the Constantinopolitan, Konstantinos Maleas (1879-1928), admirable painters with less featured work, such as Theofrastos Triantafyllidis (1881-1955), Lykourgos Kogevinas from Corfu (1887-1940), Nikolaos Othonaios (1877-1950), and Othon (Otto) Pervolarakis (1887-1974). More obscure members included Stavros Kantzikis (1885-1958) and Dimitrios Stefanopoulos (1881-1932), and the Group was completed by two sculptors: Michael Tombros (1889-1974) and the lesser known Grigoris Zevgolis (1886-1950). The choice of an informal space for their exhibition, i.e., the offices of a newspaper and not the Zappeion Exhibition Hall or Parnassus, where the members of the "Association" usually exhibited, highlighted their intention to surprise and clash with the status quo, in a manner similar to the first Impressionist exhibition, held at the photographer Nadar's former studio in 1874." -- Host institution's website, viewed March 6, 2018.
Subjects: Greek Art, Exhibitions, Modernism (Art)
Places: Greece
Time periods: 20th century