Θεσμική μεταρρύθμιση και καλλιτεχνική αλλαγή: η Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών και η ιστορία της νεοελληνικής τέχνης (1910-1937) ; Institutional reform and artistic change: the Athens School of Fine Arts and the history of modern greek art (1910-1937)

This PhD thesis investigates the process of ASFA’s institutional transformation between 1910 and 1937 and the way in which this institutional transformation is related to artistic change in the history of modern Greek art. My research focuses on two aspects of ASFA’s history. The first has to do with a chain of institutional reforms that modified ASFA’s curriculum along with its institutional status, which by the thirties had progressively reached the level of a higher, independent art academy by the European educational standards. This long process started in 1910 with ASFA’s separation from the Technical University and a new autonomous directorship under the academic painter Georgios Iakovidis. It ended in 1930 with a new ambitious reform promoted by the liberal government of Eleftherios Venizelos and implemented by ASFA’s new director Costas Dimitriadis. Dimitriadis’ reform project was part of the liberal government’s political program of bourgeois modernization and aimed strategically at modernizing Greek art by establishing its distinct national character. To this end Dimitriadis attempted to revise the old academic curriculum to make it more liberal by promoting and combining the value of artistic individuality with the notion of national identity. My principal claim in the dissertation is that the reform which took place in 1930 was in fact a reform attached to a version of academism, which despite its liberal profile did not favor the introduction of radically modern trends. In this sense, the reform of 1930 remains an example of conservative modernism. Moreover, this thesis investigates the impact of this reform on the practice of art teaching. The constant tension between academic discipline and artistic individuality, which pervades Dimitriadis’ project, is reflected in the confrontation between the ateliers of Costis Parthenis and Oumvertos Argyros, two masters with different teaching practices in the context of the new institutional environment of the reform. Their teaching reflects two different ...