TELEMACHOS KANTHOS EXHIBITION
16 -30 JUNE 2008 HELSINKI
GALLERIA DIX
Modern Cypriot Master’s Paintings are exhibited for the first time in Finland
The Embassy of Cyprus has the great pleasure to bring 36 art pieces of Master Cypriot painter Telemachos Kanthos (1910-1993) to be exhibited in Helsinki, Finland. The exhibition hosted by Galleria Dix (Uudenmaankatu 19, Helsinki) portrays a remarkable assortment of masterpieces including oil paintings, woodcuts, aquarelles and drawings and will be open until the end of June. Kanthos, who belongs to the first generation of Cypriot painters, is a very notable and renowned artist in Cyprus and in the Greek world, often regarded to as one of the fathers of modern Cypriot painting. His work is very diverse but his main interest lay in Cypriot landscape and rural life. In honour of the exhibition of Kanthos' work in Finland, soprano Eleni Kanthou and guitarist Eugenia Kanthou, daughters of the painter, will be performing a singular concert to an audience of distinguished guests on Wednesday 18 of June.
Welcoming Remarks of Her Excellency Thalia Petrides
Ambassador of Cyprus
Dear Friends,
Distinguished Guests,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the exhibition of Telemachos Kanthos, one of the founding fathers of contemporary art in Cyprus. For the first time in Helsinki 36 art works of Kanthos are exhibited spanning 60 years of art creation, among them oil paintings, woodcuts, aquarelles and drawings.
Born in Cyprus at the beginning of the 20th century, Kanthos studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, traveled in Europe, immersed himself in the contemporary artistic movements of his time and remained deeply influenced by Cezanne. He spent however most of his life in Cyprus, where he developed a distinguished style of vibrant colors in landscape paintings and a unique combination of nature and human forms in his engravings.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Cyprus is well known to the whole world for its ancient monuments and archaeological treasures. Today we have the rare chance to see the works of a modern master painter who is famous in Cyprus and the Greek world. It is a considerable effort for a small country and a small embassy like our own to organize art exhibitions outside Cyprus. This project was made possible thanks to the dedication and personal effort of the staff of our Embassy and the sponsorship of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education. I must not fail to mention my sincere appreciation to Galleria Dix for all of their work and enthusiasm in hosting this exhibition.
While proudly introducing to all of you a representative collection of art works by Telemachos Kanthos, I wish to deeply thank his family and mostly his two daughters Eleni and Eugenia Kanthou who are with us today in this Hall.
Dear Eleni and Eugenia, without your generous and warm hearted co-operation, we could have never realized our dream to bring the masterpieces of Telemachos Kanthos to Helsinki.
Thank you
TELEMACHOS KANTHOS (1910 -1993)
Born in Alona, Cyprus Kanthos belongs to the first generation of Cypriot painters and was the first engraver on the island. His painting beginning from a post impressionistic point of view reached far beyond the boundaries of his native country and his engravings are internationally acclaimed for their powerful expression. Kanthos studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens and belongs to the distinct group of artists known as “generation of the thirties”, which includes his fellow students, internationally renowned Greek painters Yiannis Moralis and Yiannis Tsarouchis.
During his studies (1932-34 and 34-39) Kanthos worked in Athens and Corfu, but with the onset of World War II in 1939 he returned to his native village in Alona, Cyprus. In the following years he devoted much time for the newly established theatrical company of Cyprus as a stage and costume designer. In 1949 Kanthos spent five months in Europe, mainly in London and Paris visiting museums and galleries. On this journey he spent some time drawing at Heatherley’s School of Art in London. He visited Italy on his way back to Cyprus, where he had been appointed to teach art at the Pancyprian Gymnasium. Kanthos revisited European centres of art often later in his life and between 1981 and 1993 he spent some time painting and drawing in Vienna, where his daughters lived.
From early on Kanthos’ main interest lay in the people and the landscape of Cyprus. As well as painting pure landscapes, many of his subjects are taken from rural and village life. The dramatic situation after the war in 1974 inspired some of his monumental works. Harmonization of surfaces and colours and the schematization of forms and backgrounds always went beyond exterior detail to provide a sense of place and inner meaning. His recurring hallmark is a vibrancy and purity of colour. Believing that an artist is free to move back and forward as he wishes, Kanthos consciously selected impressionism as his starting point. As he stated later, expressionistic painting was an experience he did not wish to miss.
His engravings provide a marked contrast to his paintings. Vigorous and dramatic, and often with considerable expressive force, they tend to be frugally composed and contain powerful symbolic content. Kanthos’ later engravings are particularly striking for their expression of intensity of inner mood and emotion and were awarded a prize at the XV Biennale of Alexandria in 1984. The Academy of Athens honoured Kanthos in 1979.
Apart from exhibitions in his native country his work was shown in one man exhibitions in Athens, London, Vienna, and Berlin as well as in group exhibitions around the world. His life and art was documented in films and two most acclaimed editions (To Portraito enos demiourgou by Chr. Christou and E. Kanthou, 2004 and Autobiographical Notes and Drawings by E.Kanthou and E.Kanthou, 1996).
Selected photos from the Exhibition:
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Houses, sky from Photistras oak (1981) Oil on canvas |  |
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Ais Andrias chapel (1981) Oil on canvas | |
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Olive trees (decade of 1980) Drawing | |
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Two boats (1972 or 1973) Aquarelle | |
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Flowerpots, jugs in the garden (1984) Oil on canvas | |
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Alona (1941) Aquarelle | |
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Among the thornbushes of Tillyria (1978) Woodcut | |
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Rachel (1977) Woodcut | |
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