Paris – Athens: The Birth of Modern Greece, 1675–1919

Marking the bicentenary of the 1821 Greek Revolution, Paris – Athens: The Birth of Modern Greece, 1675–1919 highlights the links between Greece and European culture during its occupation by the Ottomans and after its liberation in 1829 at the end of the Greek War of Independence. Declaring Athens its capital in 1834, the young state based its modern identity on French and German neoclassicism. The preservation of the Greek national heritage – aided by the creation of European archaeological institutes such as the French School of Athens, founded in 1846 – revolutionised knowledge of Greece’s material past.

This exhibition is a first attempt to cross reference the history of archaeology with the development of the Greek state and modern Greek art. The excavations at Delos, Delphi and the Acropolis uncovered a colourful Greece very different from the neoclassical ideal. The great Universal Exhibitions of the late 19th century presented a new Greek art clearly influenced by the country’s Byzantine and Orthodox identity.