Depicting Transcendence, From Byzantine Tradition to Modern Art

Catalogue of the group exhibition Depicting Transcendence, From Βyzantine Tradition to Modern Art held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Andros of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation from 30 June to 29 September 2013.

In recent and modern times, many distinguished Greek painters made recourse to the iconographic world of this great art, seeking pictorial models and influences, not in order to repeat familiar stereotypes but to merge them with the spirit and stylistic tenets of the artistic currents and movements of the last century. The aim of this homage was to explore these historical, aesthetic and stylistic influences, and to highlight the way in which Modern Greek painters incorporated them in their artistic inquiries, thus succeeding in rekindling interest in this enduring yet aesthetically undervalued iconographic culture.

The exhibition, curated by Dr Nikos Zias, Professor Emeritus of the University of Athens, was structured around works by distinguished painters, who alongside secular painting also created works on religious themes, contributing in this way to the revival of interest in Byzantine art:
Constantinos Parthenis, Photis Kontoglou, Spyros Papaloukas, Spyros Vasileiou, Polykleitos Rengos, Nikos Engonopoulos, Yannis Tsarouchis, Constantinos Artemis, Demetrios Pelekasis,Agenor Asteriadis, Polychronis Lembesis, Demetris Biskinis, Stephanos Almaliotis, Anastasios Loukidis, Nikos Nikolaou, Rallis Kopsidis, and the print-makers Demetrios Galanis, Lykourgos Kogevinas, Efthymios Papadimitriou, Anastasios Alevizos (Tassos), George Sikeliotis, Vasso Katraki.

The exhibition consisted of more than 130 works from state and ecclesiastical museums, churches, foundations and private collections.

Colour reproductions of all these works are included in this well-documented volume, edited by Christos Ph. Margaritis, accompanied by essays by:
- Kyriakos Koutsomallis, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation
- Nikolaos Zias, Professor Emeritus of the University of Athens
- Nikolaos Graikos, Ph.D. in Art History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- Spyros Moschonas, Ph.D. in Art History
- Georgios Mylonas, Art Historian - Researcher
- Ioannis Friligos, Ph.D. in Byzantine Archaeology and Art
- Ioanna Stoufi-Poulimenou, Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Theological School of University of Athens
- Georgios Tsigaras, Assistant Professor, Democritus University of Thrace
- Andromachi Katselaki, Ph.D. in Archaeology
- Maria Nanou, M.A. History of Byzantine Art
- Yannis Kolokotronis, Art Historian - Associate Professor, Department of Architects-Engineers, Democritus University of Thrace
- Melita Emmanouil, Art Historian - Professor in the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens
- Nektarios Mamais, Painter - Icon-painter, M.A. in Theology
- Irene Orati, Art Historian

*Bilingual edition (Greek, English)