Hydra stays in the artistic sun

The Greek island has worked its magic for more than 80 years, attracting creatives from Henry Miller to Leonard Cohen and now Jeff Koons

-  Helena Smith

Perched on a hillock in Hydra, JeffKoons’s Apollo wind spinner is hard to miss. The gargantuan sun sculpture welcomes visitors at all hours, its golden rays and face a vibrant (if lurid) reminder that art is alive and well on this Argo-Saronic isle. If the 9.1- metre spinner were not enough, Koons has also turned the former slaughterhouse on which it stands into a shrine dedicated to the sun god as part of his new show on the island.

In the port whose beauty still mesmerises more than 80 years after Henry Miller eulogised its “wild and naked perfection”, tourists jostle to enter exhibitions. Along a 50-met re stretch there are three shows drawing crowds.

“There’s a raw energy here, a magnetism that artists and art lovers adore ,” says the curator, Dimitrios Antonitsis , whose Hydra School Project s ha ve brought some of the world’s most innovative artists to the island. Sixty-two years after a young, undiscovered Leonard Cohen pitched up , Hydra’s appeal as a haven for creatives endures.

The island may be a far cry from the image of primitive simplicity that first drew its famously bohemian crew of expatriate writers, painters and poets , but it still offers a home for those who seek solace in art. For some this may be wrapped up in the excitement of escape, for others in its barren terrain and otherworldly light , yet even now with its trendy eateries and boutique hotels, Hydra is regarded as an artists’ mecca.