Aggelos G. Prokopiou, “Abstract Art,” translated from Greek by Michael Eleftheriou, originally published as “Αφηρημένη Τέχνη,” in Καθημερινή, Athens (April 14, 1957)

Kathimerini published a number of readers’ letters and articles containing criticism, observations, and questions relating to the aesthetic value of abstract art. Abstract art made its first appearance in the history of European art in the years 1910–16 as a branch of modern art with its own theory of aesthetics, which justifies its autonomy from Cubism and Fauvism. In painting, abstract art followed two routes, one taking music as its reference point, the other architecture. The first branch was led by Kandinsky, the second by Mondrian. The abstract art movement began to develop and spread around the world. The first abstract work was exhibited by Kandinsky in 1910. In 1910, the Czech artist František Kupka exhibited abstract canvases inspired by music. Abstract art in the absolute sense in which the term was used by leading figures in the West, such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, did not find any followers in Greece.