Greece is revered for its artistic and cultural legacy, and the arts remain a vibrant and evolving element of Greek culture, identity and self-expression. Despite, or because of, Greece's current economic woes, it has seen a palpable burst of artistic activity and creativity. While savage cuts in meagre state-arts funding have some sectors reeling, an alternative cultural scene is fighting back with low-budget films, artist collectives, and small underground theatres and galleries popping up in the capital.
Until the start of the 19th century, the primary art form in Greece was Byzantine religious painting. There was little artistic output under Ottoman rule, during which Greece essentially missed the Renaissance.
Byzantine church frescoes and icons depicted scenes from the life of Christ and figures of the saints. The 'Cretan school' of icon painting, influenced by the Italian Renaissance and artists fleeing to Crete after the fall of Constantinople, combined technical brilliance and dramatic richness. Cretan-born Renaissance painter El Greco ('The Greek' in Spanish), née Dominikos Theotokopoulos, got his grounding in the tradition of late-Byzantine fresco painting before moving to Spain in 1577.
Modern Greek art per se evolved after Independence, when painting became more secular, focusing on portraits, nautical themes and the War of Independence. Major 19th-century painters included Dionysios Tsokos, Theodoros Vryzakis, Nikiforos Lytras and Nicholas Gyzis, a leading artist of the Munich School (where many Greek artists of the day studied).
Early-20th-century artists such as Konstantinos Parthenis, Fotis Kontoglou, Konstantinos Kaleas and, later, the expressionist George Bouzianis, drew on their heritage and incorporated developments in modern art.
Leading 20th-century artists include cubist Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghikas, surrealist artist and poet Nikos Engonopoulos, Yiannis Tsarouhis, Panayiotis Tetsis, Yannis Moralis, Dimitris Mytaras and pioneer of the Arte Povera movement, Yiannis Kounellis.
The Athens National Gallery has the most extensive collection of Greek 20th-century art, with significant collections at the New Art Gallery on Rhodes and the Museum of Contemporary Art on Andros.
Modern and contemporary sculpture is shown at the National Sculpture Gallery in Athens. Greece's marble sculpture tradition endures on Tinos, birthplace of foremost modern sculptors Dimitrios Filippotis and Yannoulis Halepas, as well as Costas Tsoclis, whose work fills the island's new museum.
Contemporary Greek art has been gaining exposure in Greece and abroad, with a growing number of Greek artists participating in international art events. The Greek arts scene has become more vibrant, less isolated and more experimental, and Athens' street art is gaining recognition. Many Greek artists have studied and made their homes and reputations abroad, but a new wave is returning or staying put, contributing to a fresh artistic energy. Watch for work by street artist, Cacao Rocks, the collages of Chryssa Romanos, painter Lucas Samaras, kinetic artist Takis, and sculptor Stephen Antonakos.
Greeks have had unprecedented exposure to global art through major international exhibitions held in impressive new art venues, small private galleries and artist-run initiatives such as the annual Hydra School Project. Since 2007, Biennales in Athens have put the capital on the international contemporary-arts circuit.
Greece's new-generation filmmakers have been gaining attention for what some critics have dubbed the 'weird wave' of Greek cinema. The award-winning films of Yorgos Lanthimos (Alps; The Lobster; The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenburg; Chevalier), at the weirder end of the scale, represent a new style of independent films emerging from Greece.
While Ektoras Kygizos' extraordinary Boy Eating Bird Food is an allegory for Greece's current plight, other notable recent films are a product of it – small, creative collaborations largely produced in the absence of state or industry funding.
The focus on Greek film comes in the wake of the loss of Greece's most critically acclaimed filmmaker, Theo Angelopoulos, who was hit by a motorcycle during a film shoot in 2012. Angelopoulos was renowned for his epic, dreamlike cinematic style and long takes, and his melancholy symbolism and commentary on modern Greek history and society.
International festivals may be lauding art-house Greek films, but domestic audiences prefer comedies such as box-office hits Nisos (2009), Sirens in the Aegean (2005) and What If (2011), a film set amid the country's economic crisis.
Few Greek films get commercial releases abroad. Exceptions include Tasos Boulmetis' A Touch of Spice (2003), Pantelis Voulgaris' Brides (2004) and Yannis Smaragdis' big-budget El Greco (2007). Greece's most internationally acclaimed film remains the classic 1964 Oscar-winner Zorba the Greek.
Greek literature virtually ceased under Ottoman rule, and was then stifled by conflict over language – Ancient Greek versus the vernacular Demotic or katharevousa, a compromise between the two (dimotiki won in 1976).
One of the most important works of early Greek literature is the 17th-century 10,000-line epic poem 'Erotokritos', by Crete's Vitsenzos Kornaros. Its 15-syllable rhyming verses are still recited in Crete's famous mantinadhes (rhyming couplets) and put to music.
Greece's most celebrated (and translated) 20th-century novelist is the controversial Nikos Kazantzakis, whose novels are full of drama and larger-than-life characters, such as the magnificent title character in Alexis Zorbas (Zorba the Greek). Another great novelist of the time, Stratis Myrivilis, wrote the classics Vasilis Arvanitis and The Mermaid Madonna.
Eminent 20th-century Greek poets include Egypt-born Constantine Cavafy and Nobel-prize laureates George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis, awarded in 1963 and 1979 respectively.
Greece's literary giants include Iakovos Kambanellis, Alexandros Papadiamantis, Kostis Palamas and poet-playwright Angelos Sikelianos. The plays of Yiorgos Skourtis and Pavlos Matessis have been translated and performed abroad.
Greece has a prolific publishing industry but scant fiction is translated into English.
Contemporary Greek writers have made small inroads into foreign markets, such as Apostolos Doxiadis with his international bestseller Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, and award-winning children's writer Eugene Trivizas.
Greek publisher Kedros' modern-literature translation series includes Dido Sotiriou's Farewell Anatolia, Maro Douka's Fool's God and Kostas Mourselas' bestselling Red-Dyed Hair, which was made into a popular TV series. Other prominent writers in translation include Ersi Sotiropoulou, Thanassis Valtinos, Rhea Galanaki, Ziranna Ziteli, Petros Markaris and Ioanna Karystiani. Christos Ikonomou's Something Will Happen, You'll See was a recent bestseller in Greece.
Bypassing the translation issue, London-based Panos Karnezis (The Maze; The Birthday Party; The Convent; The Fugitives) and Soti Triantafyllou (Poor Margo; Albatross; Rare Earths) write in English. Other notable contemporary authors available in translation include Alexis Stamatis (Bar Flaubert; American Fugue; The Book of Rain) and Vangelis Hatziyannidis (Four Walls; Stolen Time).
For most people, Greek music and dance evoke images of spirited, high-kicking laps around the dance floor to the tune of the bouzouki (a musical instrument in the lute family). Greece's strong and enduring music tradition, however, is a rich mosaic of musical influences and styles.
While many leading performers draw on traditional folk, laïka (popular urban folk) and rembetika (blues), Greece's vibrant music scene is also pumping out its share of pop, club dance music, jazz, rock and even hip-hop.
In summer Greece's leading acts perform in outdoor concerts around the country. In winter they perform in clubs in Athens and large regional towns.
Authentic folk music is harder to find. The best bet is at regional panigyria (open-air festivals) during summer. Look for posters, often around telephone and power poles, or ask around.
Athens' live-music scene includes intimate rembetika (blues) clubs and glitzy, expensive, cabaret-style venues known as bouzoukia. Second-rate bouzoukia clubs are referred to as skyladhika (doghouses) – apparently because the crooning singers resemble a whining dog. Bouzoukia are the venues for flower-throwing (plate-smashing is rare these days), wanton (and expensive) displays of exuberance, excess and kefi (good spirits or mojo). Opa!
Traditional folk music was shunned by the Greek bourgeoisie after Independence, when they looked to Europe – and classical music and opera – rather than their Eastern or 'peasant' roots.
Greece's regional folk music is generally divided into nisiotika (the lighter, upbeat music of the islands) and the more grounded dimotika of the mainland – where the klarino (clarinet) is prominent and lyrics refer to hard times, war and rural life. The spirited music of Crete, dominated by the Cretan lyra (a pear-shaped, three-string, bowed instrument) and lute, remains a dynamic musical tradition, with regular performances and recordings by new-generation exponents.
Laïka (popular or urban folk music) is Greece's most popular music. A mainstream offshoot of rembetika, laïka emerged in the late 1950s and '60s, when clubs in Athens became bigger and glitzier, and the music more commercial. The bouzouki went electric and the sentimental tunes about love, loss, pain and emigration came to embody the nation's spirit. The late Stelios Kazantzidis was the big voice of this era, along with Grigoris Bithikotsis.
Classically trained composers Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hatzidakis led a new style known as entehni mousiki ('artistic' music). They drew on rembetika and used instruments such as the bouzouki in more symphonic arrangements, and created popular hits from the poetry of Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos and Kavadias.
Composer Yiannis Markopoulos later introduced rural folk music and traditional instruments such as the lyra, santouri, violin and kanonaki into the mainstream, and brought folk performers such as Crete's legendary Nikos Xylouris to the fore.
During the junta years the music of Theodorakis and Markopoulos became a form of political expression (Theodorakis' music was banned and the composer jailed).
Known as the Greek 'blues', rembetika emerged in Greece's urban underground and has strongly influenced the sound of Greek popular music.
Two styles make up what is broadly known as rembetika. Smyrneika or Cafe Aman music emerged in the mid- to late-19th century in the thriving port cities of Smyrna and Constantinople, which had large Greek populations, and in Thessaloniki, Volos, Syros and Athens. With a rich vocal style, haunting amanedhes (vocal improvisations) and occasional Turkish lyrics, its sound had more Eastern influence. Predominant instruments were the violin, outi (oud), guitar, mandolin, kanonaki and santouri (a flat multistringed instrument). The second style, dominated by the six-stringed bouzouki, evolved in Piraeus.
After the influx of refugees from Asia Minor in Piraeus following the 1922 population exchange (many also went to America, where rembetika was recorded in the 1920s), the two styles somewhat overlapped and rembetika became the music of the ghettos. Infused with defiance, nostalgia and lament, the songs reflected life's bleaker themes and manges (streetwise outcasts) who sang and danced in the tekedhes (hash dens that inspired many songs).
In the mid-1930s, the Metaxas dictatorship tried to wipe out the subculture through censorship, police harassment and raids on tekedhes. People were arrested for carrying a bouzouki. Many artists stopped performing and recording, though the music continued clandestinely. After WWII, a new wave of rembetika emerged that eliminated much of its seedy side.
Rembetika legends include Markos Vamvakaris, who became popular with the first bouzouki group in the early 1930s, composer Vasilis Tsitsanis, Apostolos Kaldaras, Yiannis Papaioannou, Giorgos Mitsakis and Apostolos Hatzihristou, and the songstresses Sotiria Bellou and Marika Ninou, whose life inspired Costas Ferris' 1983 film Rembetiko.
Interest in genuine rembetika was revived in the late 1970s to early 1980s – particularly among students and intellectuals – and it continues to be rediscovered by new generations.
Rembetika ensembles perform seated in a row and traditionally play acoustically. A characteristic feature is an improvised introduction called a taxim.
While few Greek performers have made it big internationally – 1970s genre-defying icons Nana Mouskouri and Demis Roussos remain the best known – Greece has a strong local music scene, from traditional and pop music to Greek rock, heavy metal, rap and electronic dance.
Some of the most interesting music emerging from Greece fuses elements of folk, laïka and entehna with Western influences. One of the most whimsical examples was Greece's tongue-in-cheek 2013 Eurovision contender, in which rembetika veteran Agathonas Iakovidis teamed up with the ska-Balkan rhythms of Thessaloniki's kilt-wearing Koza Mostra.
Big names in contemporary Greek music include Dionysis Savopoulos, dubbed the Bob Dylan of Greece, and seasoned performers George Dalaras and Haris Alexiou.
Standout contemporary performers include Cypriot-born Alkinoos Ioannides, Eleftheria Arvanitakiis, Savina Yannatou, and ethnic-jazz-fusion artists Kristi Stasinopoulou, Mode Plagal and the Cretan-inspired Haïnides.
Headline laïka performers include Yiannis Ploutarhos, Antonis Remos and Thanos Petrelis while the pop scene sees a steady stream of performers creating a uniquely Greek sound. Listen for Σtella, Kid Moxie, Sarah P and Keep Shelley in Athens.
Despite classical music and opera appealing to an (albeit growing) minority of Greeks, this field is where Greece has made the most significant international contribution, most notably composers Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hatzidakis and opera diva Maria Callas.
Dimitris Mitropoulos led the New York Philharmonic in the 1950s, while distinguished composers include Stavros Xarhakos and the late Yannis Xenakis. Leading contemporary performers include pianist Dimitris Sgouros, tenor Mario Frangoulis and sopranos Elena Kelessidi and Irini Tsirakidou.
The country's concert halls and major cultural festivals such as the Hellenic Festival offer rich international programs, while opera buffs have the Greek National Opera and Syros' Apollo Theatre.
Greeks have danced since the dawn of Hellenism. Some folk dances derive from the ritual dances performed in ancient temples – ancient vases depict a version of the well-known syrtos folk dance. Dancing was later part of military education; in times of occupation it became an act of defiance and a covert way to keep fit.
Regional dances, like musical styles, vary across Greece. The slow and dignified tsamikos reflects the often cold and insular nature of mountain life, while the brighter islands gave rise to light, springy dances such as the ballos and the syrtos. The Pontian Greeks' vigorous and warlike dances such as the kotsari reflect years of altercations with their Turkish neighbours. Crete has its graceful syrtos, the fast and triumphant maleviziotiko and the dynamic pentozali, with its agility-testing high kicks and leaps. The so-called 'Zorba dance', or syrtaki, is a stylised dance for two or three dancers with arms linked on each other's shoulders, though the modern variation is danced in a long circle with an ever-quickening beat. Women and men traditionally danced separately and had their own dances, except in courtship dances such as the sousta.
Folk-dance groups throughout Greece preserve regional traditions. The best place to see folk dancing is at regional festivals and the Dora Stratou Dance Theatre in Athens.
Contemporary dance is gaining prominence in Greece, with leading local troupes taking their place among the international line-up at the Athens International Dance Festival.