JOHANNIS TSOUMAS is currently curating the exhibition ‘IN(organicity)’ on the 4^th floor at cheapart, which runs till December 23. His series of small works there are immaculately and intricately depicted imaginary machines. However Tsoumas is not only an artist, but also a prolific writer with an indepth knowledge of the history of art and design. And his books are in English, thus allowing his research on Greek art history and design to be communicated further. Here are two of the books he has published:

Greek Interwar Art and Design (1922-1939) An Overview (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)

The interwar period is one of the most interesting eras in the historical course of the European and Greek arts, characterized by great diversity and marked by the birth of the ideology of Modernism, but also by the search for Greekness in every manifestation. The socio-political developments in Greece during the years 1922-1939 activated a search for the distinct characteristics of the nation through art, as in this way a single national and cultural identity could be established. The amalgamation of ancient, Byzantine and traditional Greek art with modern European trends proved to be particularly fruitful and creative, especially through the multifaceted effort of great representatives of literature, art and culture in general of the famous generation of the 1930s who managed to give their work the special features of Greekness in a critical period of modern Greek history.

This book, abounding in historic evidence and rich illustration material, constitutes a fully documented overview of Greek interwar art and design. It not only projects the irrefutable proof of the continuity of Greek art and culture from ancient times until the first years of World War II, but also sheds light on the continuity of Hellenism as a single national entity which remained genuine and intact through the multitude of sufferings experienced in the course of its history.

Women in Greek Advertisements in the 1960s (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)

Between the poles of the Cold War era’s sales promotion standards, print advertising thrived in Greece in the 1960s, particularly as it related to female consumption. What are the similarities between American women as protagonists in the world of advertising and women as consumers in 1960s Greece? Are the women portrayed in print advertisements nothing but “hybrids” of the American consumption model and the Greek consumerism boom of the era? What were the technical and esthetic, but also social and cultural connotations of female advertising in Greece at that time? How do they reflect women’s position in society?

Through a detailed, historical case study with a wealth of illustrations and a concise analysis of advertising communication, this book investigates hitherto unknown data, and shows the importance of the role of Greek women, not only as consumers, but primarily as protagonists in the formation of a new consumption model which had been imported from the United States.

SHORT BIO

Johannis Tsoumas received his MA in History of Design from Middlesex University, UK, in 1993 and his PhD in the History of Art from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2002. He has published widely in both Greek and international journals, and he is the author of the books History of the Decorative Arts and Architecture in Europe and America (1760-1914) and The Emergence of Plastics Culture in Greece (1950-1970). He currently works at the Department of Interior Architecture of the University of West Attica, Greece, as an Art and Design Historian and a Fine Arts Tutor. His areas of research interest are nineteenth-century design, art and decorative arts history, and twentieth-century European popular, visual and material culture.

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