UCLA: Reconsidering the Generation of the 1930s
Reconsidering the Generation of the 1930s:
The Roots and Breadth of Greek Modernism Conference
organized by
Sharon Gerstel (UCLA) and Sofia Pitouli (UCLA)
Saturday, November 18, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
314 Royce Hall, UCLA
This conference challenges the attribution of the term “Generation of the 1930s” (Γενιά του ’30) to artists and writers active during the 1930s and the following decades. The term initially addressed a group of writers and poets bound by similar experiences and socio-historical backgrounds. However, between 1948-50, artists were also clustered under the term, which literati employed regularly––and still do––in scholarship. These artists were credited with the creation of modernism in Greece, which was inspired by Western European movements but was also deeply rooted in history, particularly in Orthodox Byzantium. The conference explores the various poles of artistic inventiveness during the 1930s but also examines the work of these artists and writers throughout the twentieth century, prompting us to conceive their work diachronically rather than within the confines of a single decade. Given the socio-political circumstances of the nineteenth century in Greece (the traumatic changes resulting from the Greco-Turkish war, the ensuing population exchange, the collapse of the Megali Idea, the dramatic upheavals of interwar Greece, the Metaxas dictatorship, and the Junta regime), the conference examines transnational and cosmopolitan orientations within Greek modernism and the ways in which these intertwined with narratives of nationality and folklore.
Speakers:
Areti Adamopoulou, Professor of Art History, University of Ioannina
George Baker, Professor of Art History, UCLA
Nikos Daskalothanassis, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Athens School of Fine Arts
Polina Kosmadaki, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Benaki Museum
Sofia Pitouli, Ph.D. Candidate in Byzantine Art, UCLA
Poppy Sfakianaki, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH
Attendance is free but pre-registration is requested at the link below. Lunch is not included.
This program is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and is held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles.
For more details and to register, please click here.
