The Fine Arts Program of the Federal Reserve Board is sponsoring the first survey of modern Greek painting to be presented in Washington, D.C. The exhibition, featuring thirty-nine paintings and prints, is being cosponsored with the Bank of Greece, Athens.

The term “modern Greek painting” describes art produced after the country won its freedom from Ottoman occupation and established the modern Greek state in 1832. The works tell the Greek story of the emergence and application of formalist principles based on line, perspective, and form practiced in western Europe since the Renaissance but not in Greece until after their war of independence.

Nikolaos Gysis, Pallas, Athena, 1887

Two leading Greek painters who studied in Munich were Nikephoros Lytras (1832-1904) and Nikolaos Gysis (1842-1901). Their works were almost indistinguishable from the style and technique of American painters Frank Duvenek, William M. Chase, and J. Frank Currier, who were in Munich at the same time.

Comparisons between the work of modern Greek painters and their western European counterparts illuminate the way in which art movements transcend national borders. Theodoros Vryzakis’s (1814-78) interpretation of the tragedy, for example, of the Greek War of Independence should be considered in the context of the Romantic Movement in western Europe. Spyros Vikatos (1878-1960) sustained the realism of the Munich School into the twentieth century with his choice of working-class models, not unlike the realist portraits of the American group The Eight. Konstantinos Parthenis (1878-1967) painted two of the most compelling pictures featured here. Fields of color are interrupted by planes articulated by dense shading that suggests form, and raw canvas is selectively left untouched.

Konstantinos Parthenis, Athanasios Diakos, 1933-38

With the placement of a German prince on the Greek throne in 1833, opportunities to study in Germany opened up for Greek artists. The Royal Academy in Munich, which was to become internationally renowned for its curriculum, became a training ground for Greek artists, as it had been for some time for artists of other nationalities in search of solid academic credentials.

Cognizant of its mission in both the economic and cultural fields, the Bank of Greece established its collection of artwork in 1928 for the purpose of promoting and enhancing human values. The collection now comprises 1,010 works, primarily by Greek Artists.

Theodoros Vryzakis, Karaouli, 1854