Motifs, styles, and themes characterize and recur in the artists’ works, defining their course. The exhibition “Juvenilia. From Early Writing to Mature Work” at the Benaki Museum/ 138 Pireos Street seeks, studies, and highlights these ideas, which appeared early on in the early works of eleven Greek artists, gradually taking root in their mature visual language.

They are Spyros Vassiliou, Nikos Hatzikyriakos- Ghika, Yannis Tsarouchis, Yannis Moralis, A. Tassos, Vasso Katraki, Yannis Spyropoulos, Alekos Kontopoulos, Dimitris Mytaras, Yannis Gaitis, and Chrysa Romanou.

Eleven artists who have made a significant contribution to the history of modern Greek art were selected. The curators of the exhibition invited twelve historians and theorists with a deep knowledge of modern Greek and contemporary art to answer, from their own perspective, the question: What were the first creative and expressive elements that appeared in their work and how did these elements find their way into their later, recognized visual style?

Thus, the following historians contributed to the exhibition with their research and texts:

Anny Malama for Spyros Vassiliou

Evita Arapoglou and Ioanna Moraiti for Nikos Hatzikyriakos- Ghika

Anna Kafetsi for Yannis Tsarouchis

Eugenios D. Matthiopoulos for Yannis Moralis

Yannis Bolis for A. Tassos

Spyros Moschonas for Vasso Katraki

Olga Daniilopoulou for Yannis Spyropoulos

Bia Papadopoulou on Alekos Kontopoulos

Areti Leopoulou on Dimitris Mytaras

Elena Hamalidi on Yannis Gaitis

Polina Kosmadaki on Chrysa Romanou

The juvenilia offer a proposal for studying and evaluating the work as a whole, which mainly seeks to offer us an original, possibly alternative, way of reflecting on an otherwise well-known artistic work.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

The fully illustrated, bilingual exhibition catalog, published by the Bank of Greece, includes an introductory text by the exhibition’s co-curators (Charitos Kanellopoulou, Irini Orati, Konstantinos Papachristou), and studies by invited art historians and theorists on the work of the artists featured in the exhibition. The curators’ intention is for the catalog to be not simply a souvenir of the exhibition, but also a contribution to the bibliography on the artists and contemporary Greek art.

As part of the exhibition, guided tours will be conducted by the curators, the exhibition curator, and a special guest from among the twelve art historians and theorists who contributed to the catalog.

More specifically, the tour schedule is as follows:

October 18 at 1:00 p.m. – Haris Kanellopoulou & Bia Papadopoulou

October 25 at 12:00 p.m. – Irini Orati & Spyros Moschonas

November 1 at 12:00 p.m. – Irini Orati

November 15 at 12:00 p.m. – Konstantinos Papachristou

November 22 at 12:00 p.m. – Konstantinos Papachristou

November 29 at 1:00 p.m. – Haris Kanellopoulou

December 13 at 1:00 p.m. – Haris Kanellopoulou

December 20 at 12:00 p.m. – Konstantinos Papachristou

December 27 at 12:00 p.m. – Irini Orati

January 10 at 12:00 p.m. – Haris Kanellopoulou