Art in Athens

Athens perhaps has the most long-standing and impressive cultural heritage of any town in Europe. However, Athens is not only recognized through the world for its ancient culture but definitely also for its present day culture. Greek life was dominated by religion and so it is not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful. They also had a political purpose as they were often built to celebrate civic power and pride, or offer thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for success in war. Athens has given the world some of the most popular play writers, poets, philosophers and orators and its long standing cultural tradition is continuing to the present day. Museums keep the old history alive while a vast number of theatres, concert halls, big and small exhibition galleries etc. make new cultural history. In Athens these two often go hand in hand. Greek art is mainly five forms: architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery and jewellery making.

 

The town has a number of international performance groups and a continued enthusiasm for the arts is expressed annually at the Athens Festival (June to September). This main international festival was initiated in 1955 and merges music, modern and classical theatre, and contemporary and traditional dance. The idea to display case the cultural achievements of towns around the continent was conceived by Melina Mercouri, a Greek actress turned politician. Venues for the festival are the Roman Odeon of Herod Atticus, the open-air theatre on Lykavittós Hill, the Veákio amphitheatre in Piraeus and the amphitheatre at Epidaurus.

 

Jewellery Making

The Greeks started using gold and gems in their gold jewellery in 1,400 BC, although beads shaped as shells and animals were produced widely in earlier times. By 300 BC, the Greeks had mastered making coloured gold jewellery and using amethysts, pearl and emeralds. Ancient Greek jewellery commonly consisted of gold beads beautifully shaped like shells, flowers and even beetles. The fascination for jewellery in ancient Greece is quite evident from the excavations of beautiful necklaces and earrings from various sites, especially in the northern part of Greece. They excelled all other people in reproducing the joy they experienced seeing the beautiful: even the gem-cutters have attempted to reproduce the natural or human figure and other objects of nature in their microscopic work. The Greeks’ concern with beauty and harmony appears to express itself acutely also in their jewellery: to the highest degree naturalistic, it is almost always worked in relief or in the round. Gold is the principal material with occasional enamelling and relatively sparing use of gem materials. Gold Greek jewellery, was hardly worn and was mostly used for public appearances or on special occasions. It was frequently given as a gift and was predominantly worn by woman to show wealth, social status and beauty.

 

Greek Pottery

Greek pots are important because they tell us so much about how life was in Athens and other ancient Greek cities. Pots came in all sorts of shapes and sizes depending on their purpose, and were often beautifully decorated with scenes from daily life. Sometimes these scenes reflect what the pot was used for. The Greeks believed that the goddess Athena invented the potter's wheel. As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece and few or no Greek works in wood, textile, and wall paintings have survived. The painted decoration of this pottery has become the main source of information about the process whereby Greek artists gradually solved the many problems of representing three-dimensional objects and figures on a flat or curved surface. The Greeks used pottery vessels primarily to store, transport, and drink such liquids as wine and water. Smaller pots were used as containers for perfumes and unguents. Black figure, Red figure, White background technique, Proto geometric style, Geometric style are some of the popular styles of pottery of ancient Greece.

 

Greek Painting and Sculpture

Although we know from written sources that the Greeks painted pictures from the Bronze Age through to the Roman conquest, most of them have been destroyed. It may seem strange that more of the older paintings survived than the more recent ones. This is because some of the Bronze Age paintings were buried by volcanoes(as at Pompeii) and others were buried by earthquakes. Greece in the classical period makes the innovations which underlie the mainstream western tradition in art. This is true of both painting and sculpture. The essential characteristic of classical Greek art is a heroic realism. Painters and sculptors attempt to reveal the human body, in movement or repose, exactly as it appears to the eye. The emphasis will be on people of unusual beauty, or moments of high and noble drama. But the technical ability to capture the familiar appearance of things is an innovation which can later be adapted to any subject. Greek Sculptures were usually made from marble or clay. They started as big hunks of marble or other materials and were slowly chiselled away into magnificent, life-like statues. The classical Greek sculptor was more of a magician than an artist. He transcended ordinary subjects into extraordinary universal signs. These sculptures show great intelligence of the creativity in human nature, even though most of the statues are naked. The Classical period of Ancient Greece produced some of the most exquisite sculptures the world has ever seen. The art of the Classical Greek style is characterized by a joyous freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and it celebrates mankind as an independent entity (atomo).

 

Theatre

The precise origins of Greek theatre are uncertain. Greek tragedies and comedies were always performed in outdoor theatres. Early Greek theatres were probably little more than open areas in city centres or next to hillsides where the audience, standing or sitting, could watch and listen to the chorus singing about the exploits of a god or hero. Tragedy is sometimes said to have grown out of competitions in which the winner received a goat, thus earning the name tragodoi (goat songs). Comedy, on the other hand, probably developed out of songs written out of the ever-appealing pastime of making fun of people. Greek drama played a major part in religious festivals in honour of Dionysus, where all attendants were performers in the chorus as well as audience members. The outdoor Lykavittós theatre, on Lykavittós Hill, presents a range of plays and concerts throughout the summer. Altogether, there are around 50 theatres in Athens performing between October and May. However, visitors without fluent Greek may be restricted to the English language presentations of touring companies.

 

Music and Dance

Greece has a vast music and dance tradition, which varies from region from region, and sometimes even from village to village. It encompasses not only the music from areas within modern Greece, but also the music of Greeks who lived in parts of what is now Turkey, forced to leave with the 'exchange of populations' between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Music and dance in Greece (as in most traditional cultures worldwide) is deeply connected with place - the local/regional community - with food, wine, and (most often) with high spirits, these often sufficient cause for instruments to be taken out of their cases; for people to sing and dance. Several tavernas, mainly in the Plaka, get into music and dance displays at night. Most displays are designed for visitors but are lively and entertaining, however. The more authentic Greek music in Athens consists of dhimotiká (folk songs accompanied by guitar, clarinet and violin) and rembetika (a kind of Greek blues, developed by refugees from Asia Minor in the 1920s). The music unites Middle Eastern and Greek influences and the lyrics deal with the lives of the poor and outsiders. The main orchestra of town is Athens State Orchestra, who hold many of their performances at the Mégaron Mousikis Athenon (Athens Concert Hall), Leofóros Vassilissis Sofías.

 

Athens Area Arts Council is a non-profit arts organization.  It is staffed entirely by volunteers whose goal is to integrate the artistic resources of the Athens area into thier educational system, local economy, and the culture of their community. AAAC is an active advocate for public art and sponsors unique performances and events that broaden the community exposure to the arts including visual art, film, music, dance and literature. AAAC also serves as a clearinghouse for information about the arts and provides support services to working artists.