Hellenic Centre London (7 December 2022 - 21 January 2023)
Opening: Tuesday, 6 December 2022, 19:00
The Cultural Services of the Cyprus State Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Centre London co-organise in London the exhibition "ChristoforosSavva: Unbound", curated by Marina Christodoulides.
The exhibition "ChristoforosSavva: Unbound» focuses on the artist's years in London (1947-55) and the ways in which the big city inspired his work and activity in a lifetime devoted to art. Savva was in London during an exuberant decade, marked by the emergence of new artistic and social movements and the work of many pioneering artists. During this period he attended the independent Heatherley School of Fine Art (1947-53). At the same time, together with a group of fellow students, he founded the PimlicoGroup artists' collective (from the Pimlico area where the school was located, as well as other iconic art centres, including the Tate Gallery). The activities of this collective resulted in the Pimlico Group's historic collective notebook of tracing, as well as a series of works from Savas' joint trip with his colleague and close friend Roddy Maude-Roxby to Cyprus in the summer of 1954.
The exhibition also presents a comprehensive body of works created by Savva during the 1960s on his return to Cyprus, which are linked through the typically free (unbound
) [/I] element of his work. This section includes works whose style ranges from painting to pin reliefs, and from textile paintings to cement reliefs. Through this sequence, the exhibition aims to highlight the inventive coupling of materials and styles, and the astonishing range of themes and references that distinguish the artist's work. These characteristics, combined with his other work, make Savva one of the pioneering Cypriot artists of the 20th century, with a catalytic influence on the domestic art scene in Cyprus from the fifties and sixties to the present day.
The exhibition "ChristoforosSavva: Unbound» is the final part of the trilogy that began in 2019 with a large-scale retrospective exhibition of Christoforos Savvas at the new State Gallery of Contemporary Art - SPEL in Nicosia, as well as the posthumous exhibition of his works in the context of Cyprus' official participation in the 58th Venice Biennale. This third manifestation of the series continues the multi-layered research that has been carried out to date on the work and legacy of Savvas as an influential figure in the history of Cypriot art. The central aim of this ongoing research is to re-examine the artist's work from a contemporary perspective, which at the same time assists in the reading - and recognition - of Cypriot modernism as another distinct chapter in the global art history of the 20th century, against the background of the island's dramatic transition from colonialism to Independence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of the same name "ChristoforosSavva: Unbound", a new addition to the publications resulting from the exhibition trilogy. The publication will include a historical retrospective of Sava's years in London, recording recent finds of the artist's work, including a series of cement reliefs which were rediscovered in 2021 at the Perroquet entertainment centre in the occupied, enclosed town of Varosha.
The exhibition will be inaugurated on Tuesday 6 December at 19:00, by the Deputy Minister of Culture of Cyprus, Dr Yannis Toumazis, in the presence of the Consul General of the Republic of Cyprus in the United Kingdom, Mr Odysseus Odysseos. The event is under the auspices of the High Commissioner of Cyprus in London, Mr. Andreas S. Kakouris.
Christoforos Savvas (1924-1968) lived and worked in Nicosia. After serving in the Cypriot Regiment of the British Army during World War II, he moved to London, where he studied at Saint Martin's School of Art and Central School of Art and then at the Heatherley School of Art, attending classes until 1953. During the following two years he spent some time in Cyprus, where he presented his first solo exhibitions, became actively involved in the local art scene and was one of the founders of the Pancyprian Union of Artists. In 1956 he returned to London and later moved to Paris to continue his studies at the Académie Montparnasse under the guidance of André Lhote. By the end of the decade, Savva settled in Nicosia, where he soon became recognized as one of the pioneering artists of a dynamic art scene, both through his visual production and through the activities of the Decision Gallery. Judgement, which he founded in 1969 in collaboration with the Welsh artist Glyn Hughes, was the first independent cultural centre in the newly established Republic of Cyprus. As a space for the development of creative synergy and exchange, the Απόφαση soon became a centre of intellectual and cultural activity on the island, hosting numerous exhibitions, lectures, theatre performances, performances and film screenings. In 1968, Savva was one of the six artists selected to represent Cyprus in its first official participation in the Venice Biennale. A few weeks later, he died suddenly in Sheffield, UK.
EXHIBITION PROGRAMME:
Saturday 14 January 2023
15:00 Presentation of the publication ChristoforosSavva: Unbound and discussion with Roddy Maude-Roxby & Marina Christodoulides (in English)
Saturday 21 January 2023
12:00 Guided tour by art theorist, Ioulita Toumazi (in English)
GREEK CENTRE LONDON
16-18 Paddington Street, Marylebone, London W1U 5AS, United Kingdom
Opening hours:
Monday-Saturday: 11:00-17:00
Thursday: 11:00-20:00
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