Stass Paraskos

Born in Cyprus 1933 Stass Paraskos is one of the most significant artists to have emerged from Cyprus in the twentieth century. Born into poverty, he emigrated to England in 1953, settling in the city of Leeds, where he almost accidentally ended up an art student at Leeds College of Art. Following a notorious trial, after Paraskos was arrested and charged under the Vagrancy Acts, of displaying obscene paintings, he was in high demand as a teacher at the increasingly radicalised art schools in Britain during the 1960s. But it was not only in Britain that Paraskos was making his mark. With help from the first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarious, and his friends in the British art word, Paraskos would found in 1969 the first art college in Cyprus, the Cyprus College of Art. In this exhibition, organised by his daughter, Margaret Paraskos, as part of the programme for Pafos 2017: European Capital of Culture, we see a wide selection of his paintings and sculptures, and in the accompanying catalogue, learn something of the life of Stass Paraskos from his son, the art historian and novelist, Michael Paraskos.