After the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922, a climate of political disturbance and economic and social restructuring set in. This mobility favoured the influx of messages and ideas whose acceptance was defined by the degree of modernization within Greek society. New manners but also new artistic trends currently prevailing in western Europe inundated the Greek bourgeoisie in particular and the ensuing changes became apparent in fields such as entertainment, fashion and sports. Radio appeared, cinema prevailed, sporting activities became more wide-spread, the appearance of women changed. Modernity, focused on the concept of the individual as an independent natural entity, determined a new way for people to perceive themselves and the things around them.

In the artistic world 'academic' painting gradually surrendered its place to artists who had come into contact with new trends. These artists were influenced by Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism, movements that were each defining the position of the individual in the world in a different way. In the idiom of the aesthetics of the period and in artistic creation, this attempt was associated with another tendency: the quest for and definition of Greekness that in many artists of the inter-war period was evidenced by an attempt to return to the roots of Hellenism.

The dictatorial Regime of the Fourth of August tried to impose an overall control on cultural life through censorship, but this did not have any major effect on artistic creation. In the field of ideology it had adopted the concept of Greekness and the climate of a return to tradition, associating these in a special way with the nationalistic outlook of the Regime.