Coups, crackdowns and chaos: art inspired by democracy – and the despots who overthrew it

September 19

In Athens, the birthplace of republican rule, a new exhibition is exploring art it inspired, from pop art shootings to spies lurking in the Parthenon. Ironically, dictators steal the show

No place on Earth should have more authority to speak about the enduring appeal of democracy than the place that first came up with it. But a new art exhibition in Athens seems reluctant to shout about its credentials. You have to walk right to the end of the National Gallery of Greece’s show, past 137 works by 54 artists, before you come across anything like a claim to authority – and even then it’s far from triumphant.

Rika Pana’s paintings of the Parthenon, set against backgrounds of melancholy blue and muddy green, accentuate not the steadfastness of the ultimate symbol of Athenian democracy, but its eventual ruin. In three paintings, from the series The Erosion of Civilisation, the pillars of the temple – commissioned by the radical democratic reformer Pericles in the 5th century BC – look like plumes of black smoke, the uncertainty of its iconic outline emphasising its own perishability.

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