If there is such a thing as a nation-building exhibition, this is one. A manifestation and monument in itself, this survey of New Greek Photography is impressive in scope, detailed in research and clearheaded in argument. John Stathatos, curator of Image and Icon: The New Greek Photography, 1975- 1995, generates, almost single-handedly, a history for Greek photography. The exhibition The Invention of Landscape, presented at Photosynkyria in 1995 and accompanied by an extensive catalog, set the standard. Tracing the genre of landscape as it took shape in Greek photography, it gave a valuable in-depth account of the overall evolution of photographic expression in Greece, from the medium's beginnings until today.
Jan-Erik Lundström: “For Reasons of State: John Stathatos assembles New Greek Photography“,
European Photography no.61, Spring/Summer 1997
Image and Icon: The New Greek Photography, 1975-1995 was the first survey exhibition to examine in detail and in depth Greek photography of the last quarter of the 20th century, a period during which the curator argues that the medium achieved a new level of maturity. Curated by John Stathatos, presented the work of 44 photographers aged 25 to 55. It includes 240 photographic works of all kinds, from Polaroid prints to light boxes, arranged in three sections: ‘The Exploration of Space’, ‘Reading the Medium’ and ‘The Artistic Dimension’. The exhibition was accompanied by a 380-page bilingual (Greek/English) catalogue which illustrated almost every work in duotone or colour, and included an extensive essay by the curator, background information and full biographies of the participants.
Commissioned by the Greek Ministry of Culture, Image and Icon was first presented at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki during February and March 1997 as part of the Cultural Capital of Europe program, followed subsequently by an extensive international tour.
Participants
Alexandros Avramidis, Dimosthenis Agrafiotis, Yiagos Athanassopoulos, Periklis Alkidis, Costis Antoniadis, Erieta Attali, Kostas Vardikos, Panos Vardopoulos, Aris Georgiou, Nayia Yakoumaki, Yiorgos Depollas, Stelios Efstathopoulos, Stratos Kalafatis, Lizzie Calligas, Katerina Kaloudi, Olga Kaloussi, Yiorgos Katsangelos, Panos Kokkinias, Kostas Kolokithas, Nikos Koukis, Eleni Maligoura, Yannis Marapas, Natassa Markidou, Nikos Markou, Despina Meimaroglou, Manolis Baboussis, Lia Nalbandithou, Nikos Panayotopoulos, Nikos Pantis, Maria Papadimitriou, Hercules Papaioannou, Paris Petridis, Eudoxia Radi, Kostas Sergis, John Stathatos, Konstantinos Stavropoulos, Theofilos Stoupiadis, Epaminondas Schizas, Yiorgos Tsaousakis, Dimitris Tsoublekas, Yannis Psychopedis
Exhibition history
• 1997 Macedonian Museum of Modern Art, Thessaloniki, Greece (15/2-16/3)
• 1997 Mesiac Fotografie, Municipal Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia (8/11-30/11)
• 1998 Centre for Contemporary Art, Rethymnon, Greece (16/1-15/3)
• 1998 Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK (22/5-19/7)
• 2000 X-Centrum, Pilzen, Czech Republic (12/1-10/2)
• 2000 Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic (May)
• 2000 Karsh-Masson Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (9/10-26/11)
• 2001 Marché Bonsecours, Montreal, Canada (7/3-18/4)
• 2001 Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada (15/6-12/8)