When the Arts meet the Crisis… Towards an Artistic Self-Transcendence of the Artists?

At present, in the year 2015, Greece is confronted with an impending bankruptcy and faces one of the worst socio-political crises of the last decades. On account of these unfavourable conditions, young, not yet established artists encounter numerous hindrances in relation to their artistic creations and their careers. The addressed research question of this thesis explores whether these young artists have been influenced by the economic crisis and how they depict that influence in their artwork. In order to examine this phenomenon, this research utilises a qualitative approach, as it analyses the in-depth interviews of undergraduate students of the Athens School of Fine Arts. One of the key assumptions of this thesis is that young artists have indeed been influenced by the socio-political and economic crisis in terms of the materials they select and the opportunities which are offered to them. Another assumption is that the context of socio-political and economic instability motivates, if not forces, young artists to seek inventive alternative ways to exhibit their artwork, due to the currently limited access to the art market, and is also likely to lead to the emergence of a new artistic wave. Furthermore, it is argued in this thesis that artists depict this influence in their artwork either by using darker colours or through the artworks’ thematic which comments on the socio-political context. The scientific relevance of this research is based on the examination of the role of the arts within society and the importance of the role that artists play as active members of society. The analysis is based on the transcribed interviews with the undergraduate students and examines the four main themes which emerged along with several subcategories.