Originating in the seventeenth century, the Grand Tour was a traditional travel undertaken by the privileged classes along a planned route to see the Renaissance and ancient sites of Europe. Serving as an educational rite of passage, it provided the opportunity to view certain works of art, hear particular music and view the ruins of the classical period. The grand tour continued in the eighteenth century, expanding with the development of new, faster and cheaper forms of transport, becoming, ultimately, the origin for contemporary tourism with companies such as Thomas Cook’s ‘Cook’s Tour’, a byword for cultural tourism.

Though Greece was not part of the original Grand Tour, it was included in the itinerary of most travellers from the late eighteenth century on and was of course part of the first Grand Tour undertaken by Lord Byron from 1809 to 1811. Byron famously returned to Greece in the 1820s to fight in the Greek War of Independence, dying there from illness in 1824. His impression of the country, as expressed in the quote above, was coloured by the fallen state in which he found many of the ancient sites: his admiration for the past glory tempered by a confrontation with the contemporary situation.

Rather than dwelling on the Romantic's attraction to ancient Greece or indeed focusing on the significance of the ancient culture, this exhibition brings together work by many of the internationally renowned artists who have lived and worked in Greece during the twentieth century. Looking at Greece as a site of inspiration over the past sixty years, works to be included reflect the various ways in which the country, its long cultural history and geographic characteristics have continued to be a source for artistic innovation. Concentrating only on those artists who have invested a lengthy stay in Greece or in some cases established second homes there, The Last Grand Tour brings to light both well-known visitors as well as those who have quietly been present over the last decades.

From the elegiac meditations of British artists John Craxton and Ben Nicholson in the 1950s whose paintings and drawings respond to the landscape, light and mythology of the Greek islands, to the painterly approach of Brice Marden whose series of works on marble from the 1980s appear like fragments of ancient structures transformed into abstract painting, the exhibition includes a variety of responses to the country. Cy Twombly’s ‘Delian Odes’ a series of drawings made on his first visit to the Cycladic Islands in 1961 represent the artist’s ongoing fascination with Greek culture and mythology, while the work of Lynda Benglis whose pleated and gilded sculptures recall the fabric drapery of the Caryatid is an example of a diasporic Greek artist raised in America but retaining strong affiliation to the culture. A central work in the exhibition, the series of sculptures ‘Magie à la noix’ (1966-67) by Daniel Spoerri, were made on the island of Symi from the detritus the artist gathered there and are shown alongside extracts from his book ‘Mythology and Meatballs’ written on his return in 1968 which represents the artist’s quintessential commingling of food and culture.

The Greek-born Lucas Samaras, Iannis Xenakis and Jannis Kounellis, each of whom left the country in their youth but continued to make works intimately connected to its history and culture, are represented by key works that reveal their often complex relationship to their homeland. Shown for the first time in Greece, Martin Kippenberger’s legendary project MoMAS (Museum of Modern Art Syros) - the lengthy and typically humorous project that used one of the many half built structures in the country as the starting point for a fanciful museum of modern art staffed by the artist’s friends and acquaintances - and ‘Metro Net’ the fantastical world-wide subway system (also initiated on Syros with the first metro entrance built there in 1993) are presented through models, paintings, drawings and ephemera.Helmut Middendorf’s abstract paintings that dwell on the concrete surfaces that dominate Athens are also be on view. The youngest artists in the exhibition, Manfred Pernice and Juergen Teller offer a Kippenberger-like ironic perspective on the contemporary position of classical heritage.

Among the questions that the exhibition raises are how has the role of ancient culture changed in contemporary art and at what point did artists cease to travel to Greece for extended periods of time. The exhibition brings to light the striking shift in contemporary culture that has seemingly witnessed an end to the traditional ‘Grand Tour’ so closely associated with Byron and his fellow Romantic artists. Where do artists seek inspiration now and what parallel can be drawn with the current globalised age of hyper-mobility and the travel and cultural explorations of previous generations of artists? The end of the grand tour has accompanied many other end points in contemporary culture and it remains unclear in what ways the abandonment of a classical heritage will affect our future artistic surroundings. On a small scale, the Last Grand Tour calls for a reflection on this moment of change that corresponds to the contemporary shifts experienced in Greek social and cultural life.

Artists: Etel Adnan | Lynda Benglis | Leonard Cohen | John Craxton | Barbara Hepworth | Martin Kippenberger | Jannis Kounellis | Markus Lüpertz | Brice Marden | Helmut Middendorf | Ben Nicholson | Manfred Pernice | Lucas Samaras | Daniel Spoerri | Juergen Teller | Cy Twombly | Iannis Xenakis

Curator: Jessica Morgan
The exhibition is curated by Jessica Morgan, Tate Modern. Morgan has curated numerous exhibitions for Tate including the retrospectives of Gabriel Orozco (2011), John Baldessari (2009) and Martin Kippenberger (2006) as well as group exhibitions such as Common Wealth (2003), Time Zones (2004) and The World as a Stage (2007).

Exhibition duration | 15 April – 10 October 2011