Expressionism is rarely found in Greece, or in southern Europe for that matter. Perhaps because, as has been observed, Mediterranean light absorbs psychic eruptions, scatters the phantoms. "Generation of the Thirties", nevertheless, contained several expressionists.
Giorgos Bouzianis (1885-1959)
Was one of the greatest and most genuine Greek expressionists. His painting came to maturity in the home of expressionism, Germany, where he lived from 1906 to 1935.
He was the only one of the Greek painters at the School of Munich who arrived there psychically predisposed to embrace the great doctrine of expressionist painting, the national school of Germany. He created a painting universe inhabited by human passions, expressed through the forms and materials of painting.
Theophrastos Triantafyllidis (1881-1955)
Even thought he was a muted and intimate painter, his works are imbued with feeling. One of the best painters of the first half of the 20th century he developed both impressionist and expressionist elements.
Thematically his work is primarily focused on scenes of everyday life, still lifes, portraits and landscapes, which are distinguished for their deep inwardness and melancholy, while during the last years of his creative life he was involved with religious subjects.
Santorini (1958) by Mitarakis YannisNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Yannis Mitarakis (1898-1963)
Who looked at the landscape through a powerful experience that led him to abstract expressive distortion.
Self-Portrait (ca. 1925-1930) by Vitsoris Mimis (Dimitris)National Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Mimis Vitsoris (1902-1945)
Who anachronistically represented the damned and self-destructive artist type.
Texts: Marina Lampraki-Plaka, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, ex-Director, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Project leader: Efi Agathonikou, Head of Collections Department, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Images: Stavros Psiroukis & Thalia Kimpari, Photographic Studio, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Digital curation: Dr. Alexandros Teneketzis, Art Historian & Marina Tomazani, Art Historian, Curator, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
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