36th Venice Biennale | Cyprus in Venice
36th Venice Biennale
Costas Averkiou, Stelios Votsis, Nikos Kouroussis, Angelos Makrides, Mikis Phinikarides
Tony Spiteris

Artists & Works:
Costas Averkiou (1917-1981)
Wood Construction I, II and III
Stelios Votsis (b. 1929)
Presence I, 5-A1 και 5-A2
Nikos Kouroussis (b. 1937)
Blue-Red-Yellow B, Red-Blue-Yellow A, Image E
Angelos Makrides (b. 1942)
Dead, Dead, Dead
Mikis Phinikarides (1940-2005)
Composition B1, B2 and B3

Permanent participation in the Venice Biennale has not always been taken for granted, especially when it came to countries outside the main art ‘circuits’. Consequently Cyprus was absent from the 1970 edition of the Biennale. The year 1972 marked the last appearance of Cypriot artists in Venice before a long pause, due to the events of 1974. This appearance, by Stelios Votsis Costas Averkiou, Angelos Makrides, Nikos Kouroussis, and Mikis Finikarides, was not a national representation per se, but instead a contribution to a particular section of the biennial devoted to Graphic Arts, staged in Ca’ Pesaro, the Museum of the City of Venice. The works had been again selected by Tony Spiteris, following a public call for proposals by the Ministry. Out of a total of fifteen works, it has only been possible to retrieve a limited number for this exhibition.

Artist(s)
Nikos Kouroussis

Nikos Kouroussis (b.1937, Mitsero) lives and works in Nicosia. He studied in London at St. Marin’s School of Art (1960-1961) and at Hornsey College of Art (1961-1964). He later attended a course on stage design in England in 1977 (on a scholarship from the British Council) and made research and gave lectures in U.S.A. (on a Fulbright scholarship) in 1986. He gave a series of lectures on art at Pratt University in New York in 1976 and 1988 as guest artist, as well as at South Dacota State University. Kouroussis represented Cyprus at the 44th Venice Biennale of Art, as well as the 36th Venice Biennale of Art together with four other Cypriot artists.

Costas Averkiou

Costas Averkiou (1917-1981, Psimolofou) lived and worked in Nicosia. He is a self-taught engraver and painter. He worked with his father as a carpenter and thus acquired the necessary knowledge of woodcarving, which later proved to be useful in his artistic career. He dealt occasionally with plagues, advertising posters and the graphic arts in general. At the same time, he was devoted to his art and more specifically to the art of painting. Averkiou represented Cyprus at the 36th Venice Biennale of Art together with four other Cypriot artists.

 

Mikis Phinikarides

Mikis Phinikarides (1940-2005, Nicosia) lived and worked in Nicosia. He studied painting at the Higher School of Fine Arts and the Free Institute of Fine Art in Athens. During the years 1965 – 1972, he taught art in Secondary Schools in Cyprus, while in parallel, worked on stage design and graphics for Cypriot television. In 1973, he studied on a scholarship, graphic arts and stage design for television at the Thomson Foundation T.V. College in Glasgow. Phinikarides represented Cyprus at the 36th Venice Biennale of Art together with four other Cypriot artists.

Angelos Makrides

Angelos Makrides (b.1942, Yialousa) lives and works in Nicosia since 1986. He studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Art (1961-1967) with Thanasis Apartis. He worked in Paris (1967-1969), in Nicosia (1969-1974) and in Athens (1974-1986). Makrides represented Cyprus at the 43rd Venice Biennale of Art, as well as the 36th Venice Biennale of Art together with four other Cypriot artists.

Stelios Votsis

Stelios Votsis (1929-2012, Larnaka) lived and worked in Nicosia. He studied at St. Martin’s School of Fine Arts, Sir John Cass College and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His early work of portraits, landscapes and still life, he forms a personal journey that leaves the mid ’60s to devote himself to geometric comporsitions with constructivist elements, integrating his work into modern artistic tendencies. The geometric elements, after the events of 1974, experiment with the human form, adding layers to his painting subjects concerned with existentialism. Votsis represented Cyprus at the 36th Venice Biennale of Art together with four other Cypriot artists.

Curator
  • Tony Spiteris

    Tony Spiteris was a Greek art critic based in Venice. During that period he was acting as General Secretary of AICA (International Association of Art Critics). From the mid-’60s, he collaborated with the Cyprus Government as advisor on cultural matters, and in this capacity he curated the first national participation of Cyprus in the Venice Biennale.

location

Ca’ Pesaro (Museum of the City of Venice)

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