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The two aspects of a nationalistic art in Greece 1950-1960

Ιστορία της τέχνης

• Παπανικολάου, Μιλτιάδης Μ.

As it is known, during the Second World War Greece has fought on the side of the allies and the end of the war found the country on the winners’ side. However, the struggle for authority right after 1945 was merciless and extremely difficult, as well as dangerous for the course of the country to the future. The political powers were divided between the legal authorities that were represented by the king and formed the exiled government on the one hand and the part of the resistance teams and the rebels of the left that had a soviet friendly direction on the other.Thus, the start of a civil war was just a matter of time. It finally started in 1947 and lasted for more than two years. The consequences were disastrous for the country’s economy and decisive for the future course of Greece. The national army prevailed with the help of, mostly, the English. Royal parliamentary democracy was established with a clear political turn to the west, as a completion and adaptation of the Agreement of the Great Powers at Yalta.Art had a ‘similar’ route. Dipolar, contradictory: conservative choices on one hand and a will for pioneering inspiration and perspective on the other.The ‘dominate’ trend was first evident in sculpture and mainly in the public monuments. Their construction aimed mostly at public propaganda and the promotion of the sovereign ideology.On one hand we have the public sculptures composed from faces of contemporary heroes or leading figures of the civic war and the national resistance. On the other we have monumental art works —statues mainly— that appeal to a ‘public’ outside of the country’s borders and mostly of the north borders, where there are countries with a communistic regime, like Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania. Their subject is derived from the heroic events of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Alexander the Great —the Greek army leader—, his father Philipp II and the philosopher Aristotle, who was of north-Greek origin.The political message is twofold: on one side the ‘inner enemy’ — the communists that were defeated and the promotion of the new liberal social system and on the other the north neighbours, which not only represent the East Block, but they also conspire the history and the culture of the Greeks. The ‘Cold War’ in a full and totalitarian expression in art.

• Arts
• History and Archaeology

• Nationalism and art
• Ιστορία

Το κείμενο αυτό αποτέλεσε το θέμα του συγγραφέως στο συνέδριο που έγινε στην Κορέα, με τίτλο «Nationalism and Art Best of 1945» που πραγματοποιήθηκε το Νοέμβριο του 2006, με οργάνωση της The Korean Society of Art Theories, Περιέχει εικόνες