A century of artistic exchange comes into focus at the Benaki Museum in Athens, where an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the French art journal Cahiers d’Art brings together objects from different cultures and historical periods to explore the relationship between modern art and the wider world.
Titled Cahiers d’Art: 100 Years. Through the Collections of the Benaki Museum, the exhibition is on view in a gallery on the second floor of the Museum of Greek Culture, one of the Benaki Museum’s exhibition venues. Curated by Polina Kosmadaki and Vasiliki Daniel, it examines the connections between the journal’s editorial vision and the collecting philosophy of Antonis Benakis.
The exhibition’s curatorial statement describes how Cahiers d’Art presented modern art through an innovative aesthetic dialogue with antiquity, world cultures and artistic traditions from distant historical periods. It also highlights the shared outlook of Zervos and Benakis, two cosmopolitan Greeks who viewed world culture not as a collection of isolated objects but as an open field of exchange in which knowledge emerges through encounters between different cultures.
A miniature exhibition spanning cultures and centuries
Despite its compact scale, the exhibition brings together a remarkably diverse selection of works. Cycladic figurines, Persian ceramics, Chinese porcelain, Byzantine icons, Coptic textiles, architectural plans, sculptures, traditional woven fabrics and other artifacts appear alongside pre-Columbian objects from Peru, traditional musical instruments and weaving tools.
NEWSLETTER TABLE TALK
Never miss a story.
Subscribe now.
The most important news & topics every week in your inbox.
The selection also includes sculptures and drawings by Greek artist Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, placing his work within the exhibition’s broader exploration of artistic traditions and cultural exchange.
The exhibition design draws directly on the visual identity of Cahiers d’Art. Founded by art critic Christian Zervos in 1926, the French journal emerged at the heart of the modernist movement. Its early covers featured monochromatic squares, a motif reinterpreted in the exhibition through red, yellow and green wall-mounted display cases containing selected objects from the Benaki Museum’s collections.
Beside the objects, miniature reproductions of pages from the journal show the images and themes with which the museum’s exhibits have been associated. The arrangement allows visitors to see how the objects relate to the publication’s artistic and intellectual interests.
White display walls form a zigzag line when viewed from a distance, evoking the act of turning the pages of a magazine.
“We researched how the avant-garde of the 1930s and Zervos engaged with Antonis Benakis’ collecting ambitions,” Kosmadaki said. “In the pages of Cahiers d’Art and in the display cases of the Benaki Museum, the works were presented independently of a linear chronological sequence.”
Film, sound and the experience of turning pages
The exhibition extends beyond physical objects through After Images, a multimedia installation by emerging visual artist Natalia Papadopoulou.
Papadopoulou filmed pages from Cahiers d’Art and objects from the Benaki Museum’s collections using a circular lens, creating a visual dialogue between the publication and the museum’s holdings.
The installation is accompanied by music inspired by primordial sounds, composed by Dimitris Patsaros, as well as the faint whispers of Greek journalist and presenter Nikos Aliagas reading excerpts from Zervos’ articles on the mysteries of the world and modern art.
An accompanying catalog, published in both Greek and English, features contributions from the exhibition’s curators and the French publishers of Cahiers d’Art.
School architecture and the ideals of modernity
Among the exhibition’s highlights are photographs and architectural drawings of school buildings designed by Greek architect Nikolaos Mitsakis. The projects were presented in Cahiers d’Art by architect Patroklos Karantinos, who wrote about New Greek Architecture in 1934.
The school designs reflect an emphasis on orientation and the arrangement of building facades, with windows and shaded corridors intended to allow light and fresh air to circulate through classrooms.
Their presentation in the journal also connected Greek architectural developments with contemporary debates abroad. The designs addressed demands by French students who had taken to the streets to protest conditions in their own outdated school buildings and call for improvements.
Through these architectural works and its wider selection of objects, the exhibition highlights the connections between artistic innovation, cultural heritage and changing ideas about modern life.