It's Not All Greek to Us

Parthenon in Athens, Greece. All photographs by the author unless otherwise noted

«Snow on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece? Who could envision that? Surely not me this past July while I was clambering over the rocks on a hot but glorious day on my way to see the Parthenon. I was doing what most tourists do every year when they come to this ancient city, but Greece is much more than just ruins—it's a country filled with museums and contemporary art galleries.»

Erechtheum on Acropolis, Athens, Greece

In recent years Thomas J. Watson Library has received a large number of exhibition and collection catalogues as gifts from various galleries and museums in Greece. Although it is not unusual to receive gifts from abroad, we are getting more Greek language material now than we ever have before. It can be a challenge to process these books because some need original cataloging using Greek script. Luckily, I learned to read Greek as an undergraduate studying classical languages, so cataloging these materials is a pleasure for me.

Three of my favorite museums are the Benaki Museum, the Mouseio Synchrones Technes (in Andros), and the B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts & Music. The Benaki Museum is dedicated to Greek art from antiquity to the present. Founded in 1930 by Antonis Benakis, it is located in a recently renovated mansion in Athens. The Benaki Museum has a very active exhibition schedule and is prolific in terms of exhibition catalogue production, too. One such catalogue, Costis Antoniadis: Second Hand Photographs, 1985–2013, shows some of the unique and exquisite photographs by Antoniadis. Born in Athens, Costis Antoniadis studied physics at Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki and later photography in Paris. He has been both a professor of photography as well as a professional photographer. His works in this catalogue seem to me to be endowed with an air of melancholic lyricism, the figures entrenched within a state of static, timeless grace.

Costis Antoniadis. Wall in a Courtyard, 1988. Archival pigment print. From Antoniades, Kostes. Costis Antoniadis: Second Hand Photographs: 1985–2013. Athens: Benaki Museum, 2013.

Costis Antoniadis. Wall in a Courtyard, 1988. Archival pigment print. From Antoniades, Kostes. Costis Antoniadis: Second Hand Photographs: 1985–2013. Athens: Benaki Museum, 2013.

The Mouseio Synchrones Technes, founded by the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, is dedicated to contemporary art. Its initial collection was centered on the works of Michael Tombros, a sculptor who was a native of Andros, but the museum's holdings are now further enhanced by the Goulandris's personal collection. The catalogue Approaching Surrealism, published in conjunction with an exhibition from 2012, displays an eclectic and unique gathering of works by both well-known European Surrealists and several Greek Surrealists. One Greek artist from the catalogue is Nikos Engonopoulos, whose playful works bring together the history and beauty of Greece while exhibiting the quirkiness of Surrealism.

Nikos Engonopoulos. A Secret Meeting - As Yet Unconfirmed by Other Sources – Between the Poets Raymond Roussel and Georg Trakl at the Ruins of Ephesus, 1968. Oil on canvas. Private collection – S. G. Zachariades. From Approaching Surrealism. Athens: Edkoseis Midre Arktos, 2012.

Nikos Engonopoulos. Divine Couple, 1938. Indian ink and watercolor on paper. Private collection. From Approaching Surrealism. Athens: Edkoseis Midre Arktos, 2012.

The B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts & Music, a nonprofit foundation located in Athens and founded in 2004, holds a number of cultural events and exhibitions focusing on modernism. It seems fitting to show some of the artwork of Basil Theocharakis himself from the Foundation's catalogue Basil Theocharakis Painting, 2007–2013, which published in conjunction with an exhibition held there from December 11, 2013, through February 2, 2014. Basil Theocharakis, born in Piraeus in 1930, is both a prominent businessman and prolific painter. His paintings capture the intensity of the natural beauty of a Greek landscape: the hazy sultriness of a summer day among ruins or the rhythmic crashing of the seas blue waves against the rocks.

Basil Theocharakis. The Sun of Democracy, 2009. Oil on canvas. From Theocharakes, Vasiles. Basil Theocharakis Painting, 2007–2013. Athens: Melissa, 2013.

Basil Theocharakis. Gazing at the Tempestuous Sea III, 2010. Oil on canvas. From Theocharakes, Vasiles. Basil Theocharakis Painting, 2007–2013. Athens: Melissa, 2013.

Your odyssey to these Greek museums can be done by merely trekking to Watson Library and examining some our many Greek museum and gallery catalogues. Who knows—maybe the muse will sing in you!