Thus, different forms of autonomous expression emerge, characterized mainly by the use of heterogeneous materials and means of expression, which are encountered above all in the various developments of the work of D. Alithinòs, Diochandi, Zubulis-Greku, Greece Lazongas, B. Davu, L Papakonstantinu, R. Papaspyru, Ch. Romanos. On an opposite front, on the contrary, in the early Eighties, expressionist painting finds support, which has as its most significant exponents M. Theophylaktòpulos (b.1939) and Sakellion (b.1947), while, at the same time, the figurative painting of expressionistic technique has as main representatives Ch. Bòtsoglu (b. 1941) and V. Xenu (1949), this tendency which constitutes an artistic school with a significant following of young authors.
According to rrrjewelry.com, the Eighties, however, are characterized above all by the emergence of a new dynamism which, in general, can be divided into different attitudes in the face of the theorization of the avant-garde. The first aspires to overcome the flattening of values, rejecting the pre-packaged expressive schemes proposed by the various mass currents of the Eighties. The second, on the contrary, intelligently reworks contemporary cultural theories in different and independent ways in search of an achronic and acultural identity, enriching the language with elements that draw from nature, as transpired, in the early Eighties, in the work of Tòtsikas (n. 1951), and as it manifests itself with full evidence, towards the end of the decade, e.g. in the creations of P. Charalambous (b. 1956) and even younger artists.
In the context of the same problem, other important young artists emphasize the value of the spiritual dimension of the individual, investigating the ritual relationship with space and the meaning of primordial symbols. From this trend, at the end of the Eighties and at the beginning of the following decade, completely independent languages appeared and the most mature researches, such as those of N. Liodaki, A. Papafilippu (b.1961), M. Spiliòpulos (1957), N. Sklavenitis.
At the same time, since the mid-1980s, a significant number of young people adopt the languages of the international currents of postmodernism more immediately, with a pre-eminent position for K. Varotsos (b.1955) and N. Bàïkas (b.1948), while influenced by figuration libre, the neo-pop and conceptual movements are taken up, with various languages, by N. Alexiu (b. 1960), Greece Kottis (b. 1949), Ch. Lambert (b. 1955), Greece Lambert, N. Tziotis (b. 1950), Greece Fokàs (b. 1951), M. Charos (b. 1960), P. Tanimanidıs (b. 1957), and others.
In the Eighties there was also a rebirth of sculpture, thanks to the appearance of notable artists, who generally combined the conceptual approach of figurative art with the action of sculpture. Combinations that are defined, around 1985, by Greece Lappas (b.1950) and later by A. Michailidis (b.1960), as well as by the more formalistic sculptural researches of A. Patsuris (b.1955) or by the ironic comment on the civilization of machines present in the mechanical movement creations of L. Gatis (b. 1954).
The passage from the Eighties to the Nineties is further enriched thanks to a renewed figurative research, which recomposes together, on the canvas, the conceptual tradition and the materials of painting; various autonomous languages will derive from this procedure, such as those of N. Kaskuras (b.1949), Greece Mesinis (b.1960), I. Charisis (b.1957) and other artists, who make their first appearance at the early nineties.
A fruitful decade in terms of the number of artists and poetic researches, the Eighties are also accompanied by the encouraging opening of a large and growing number of galleries in Athens and Thessaloniki, while, for the first time, avant-garde artistic research also finds more systematic support. in some large centers of the province, in particular Patras and other cities, such as Iraklion (Crete), Ioannina, Larissa. Furthermore, not only the periodic events of various municipalities and public bodies, such as the Patras Festival, have contributed to the attempt to arouse a wider interest of society in contemporary art, but also less regular events, organized with the support of the state or of the Local societies. For its part, the National Art Gallery of Athens continues to give space.
The contribution of private initiative also played a particular role in supporting contemporary art in the 1980s. Regarding the birth of this new interest, it should be noted that since the mid-seventies a strong solicitation had come from the return of the collection of Greece Kostakis, with works of the Russian avant-garde, and of the collection of artists of the new international avant-garde owned by A. Iolas. Collections which, however, did not manage to obtain an extraordinary protection measure from the Greek state, so that, subsequently, they passed back to foreign countries. The private collections, mainly of Greek artists, had better luck, who later, in the 1980s, took the initiative to create museums and set up foundations, that with the periodic organization of exhibitions by Greek and foreign artists encourage artistic production: in Attica, the I. Vorrès Collection, confirmed as a Museum in the early 1980s; the DZ Pierides Art Gallery, founded in 1977; the International Sculpture Biennial of the Scironio Polychronòpulos Museum, inaugurated in 1977; the DESTE foundation, created in 1984; while, in parallel in other regions of Greece, private initiatives act effectively for the diffusion of contemporary art, such as the Macedonian Center of Contemporary Art and the foundation of the Vaphopouleion of Thessaloniki, as well as the Vasili and Elisa Gulandrì Museum of Modern Art on the island by Andros.
A significant role, finally, in promoting research on contemporary art has also played, in the last decade, the appearance of a new generation of critics, whose work has also been facilitated by a growing publishing activity with the publication of studies historians and catalogs of works by Greek artists, while the illustrated periodical printing, after notable but short-lived attempts, in the past decades, seems to be experiencing a new moment of fortune since 1990.
