31 January – 31 March 2019

Exhibition Guide

Πρόωρα Παρών Untimely on Time

Christoforos

Savva

3

UnTimely on Time

Christoforos Savva is widely acknowledged as one of the most

groundbreaking Cypriot artists of the twentieth century. in a

relatively short period of time he produced an impressive and highly

diverse body of works, ranging from the figurative paintings of the

’50s to the abstract paintings, sculptures, experimentations with

wire, cement, and fabric leftovers, as well as the forays in furniture

design and the architectural interventions he undertook in the

’60s. The coexistence of styles and the wide range of themes and

references that appear in his work, from Greek and African

Classical Art, to Cypriot handicrafts, Folk Art, informal Art, Pop,

and avant-garde movements, all seem to suggest that strictly formal

questions were not his main concern. it could be said that the

core of his work constantly shifted toward a place that was beyond

both form and content in each of his paintings, sculptures, or

yfasmatographies. looking closely at his activity as a whole,

particularly after his return to Cyprus, one is left with a sense that

this “beyondness” encapsulates the artist’s unique practice, his role

in Cypriot society and in the local artistic system that was grad-

ually being organised at the time. in this respect, it is significant

that Savva’s decision to settle in nicosia coincided with the island’s

independence from the United Kingdom and, therefore, with his

presumed aspiration to play an active role in building a new national

imaginary based on the principles of inclusiveness and plurality.

Christoforos Savva in the Cypriot countryside

Christine Savva-Duroe Archive

Photo: Roddy maude-Roxby, 1955

4

The diversity observed in Savva’s work from the ’60s, then, is

perhaps the outcome of the collision between the different “times”

he witnessed. if there is a philosophy of time to be extracted from

Savva’s work, it would probably be that everything coexists and

mutually complements. Savva’s lived experience of independence

entailed living life to the full: rather than looking toward an ideal-

ised past, he embraced the present and created art for the present

while looking at it. in the same way that Savva’s works often con-

dense very different references, so too this exhibition aspires to

point toward a number of remarkable aspects of Savva’s trajectory,

including his original way of seeing artists’ relation with their own

artistic practice, how he engaged in the events of his time without

ever setting aside his aesthetic concerns, and his profound pursuit

of transcendence. The archival material on Savva’s exhibitions,

both from the ’50s and the ’60s, reveals crowded installations,

where works of different styles and themes are juxtaposed, creat-

ing strong contrapositions. While this kind of presentation is more

attuned to the aesthetics of that certain time rather than to ours, it

also reflects the artist’s very own approach to art, and probably to

life itself: always decidedly inclusive and experimental. inspired by

both his exhibitions and his personality, and aiming to show how

his work can still be considered, in many ways, relevant within the

contemporary artistic production of Cyprus, as well as essential for

a profound understanding of Cypriot art, the layout of this exhibi-

tion is itself experimental; it follows a different logic from floor to

floor in order to emphasise the centrality of this aspect of Savva’s

work and personality.

exhibition of Christoforos Savva at the Goethe institute Cyprus, 12 – 20 may 1968

Christine Savva-Duroe Archive

7

eARly yeARS

The first section of the exhibition is dedicated to works produced

by Savva before 1960. This period, which can be considered forma-

tive for Savva, as a person and as an artist, was marked by several

travels and long stays in europe, especially in london, where

he studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art (1948 – 1954), and

Paris, where he enrolled at Atelier André lhote (which he attended

at different times between 1956 and 1958). While abroad, Savva

maintained consistent and intense correspondence with fellow art-

ists and friends in Cyprus, and periodically returned to the island,

where he exhibited quite regularly and established himself as one

of the leading artists of his generation.

The ’50s were an ebullient decade in the artworld, characterised

by the emergence of various seminal artists and movements, includ-

ing Jackson Pollock and Abstract expressionism in the USA,

yves Klein and the nouveau Réalistes in France, the Gutai group

in Japan, the neoconcrete movement in Brazil, to name just a few.

These influences would surface in Savva’s production at a later

moment, after his return to Cyprus in 1960. His previous work,

as in the case of the paintings presented in this section, mainly

revolves around classical academic themes, including landscapes,

nudes and still-lifes, where he sometimes introduced references to

movements such as Cubism and Fauvism.

Still Life, 1957

oil on canvas, 60.5 × 73.5 cm

Courtesy of A. G. leventis Gallery, nicosia

8

APoPHASiS

in may 1960, Savva founded together with Welsh artist Glyn

Hughes Apophasis [Decision], a gallery in the old town of nicosia

where the two also resided and had their studios. inaugurated with

a joint presentation of the two artists’ work, Apophasis can be

described as the first independent cultural centre to have opened

its doors in Cyprus. it soon established itself as a fundamental

part of the intellectual life of nicosia at a particularly important

moment in the recent history of Cyprus. A few years later, Savva

also opened the Apophasis Tavern, where artists and intellectuals

gathered and which provided much needed, albeit limited financial

resources, to sustain himself, his family, and his artistic creation.

The range and diversity of the activities hosted by Apophasis

is impressive, ranging from more conventional art presentations to

drawings by children, the first joint exhibition of Greek Cypriot

and Turkish Cypriot artists (a quite audacious endeavor, especially

for that time), and sculptures by self-taught naïve artist (michael

Kashalos). The gallery also staged plays, held events for film-

makers and playwrights, and hosted poetry readings. The almost

idiosyncratic diversity of Apophasis is comparable to Savva’s own

effer vescent artistic production: in a polarised and divided society,

which had barely emerged from a long anti-colonial struggle before

it plunged into violent intercommunal conflict, the habit of includ-

ing opposites became no less than a political statement.

Christoforos Savva at Gallery Apophasis, ca. 1960 – 1963

Christine Savva-Duroe Archive

11

ARCHivAl mATeRiAl

Throughout the exhibition, a substantial number of ephemera and

archival material related to Christoforos Savva’s time and life is

presented in vitrines and tables. even though the material is on

loan from a number of sources, the largest part of it comes from

the personal archive of the artist’s family, presented to the public

for the first time in physical form, a testimony to the efforts that

Christine Savva-Duroe, spouse of Savva and mother of his two

children, Ghika and marcos, dedicated to preserving the artist’s

legacy. Christine Savva-Duroe had also been working meticulously

on the publication of an idiosyncratic monograph on Savva, which

never materialised; this is also presented here for the first time

in the form of drafts and sketches. not always directly related to

the artworks exhibited alongside them, these photographs, letters,

invitations, postcards, and documents recount a somewhat different

story, at times departing from a conventional reconstruction

of Savva’s career and practice, to delve into his life and personality

as a whole.

newspaper clipping on the exhibition by Christoforos Savva

and Glyn Hughes at Gallery Apophasis, 15 may 1960

Glyn Hughes Foundation Archive

12

yFASmAToGRAPHieS

Yfasmatography is a neologism created by Christoforos Savva

himself to describe some of his most original and groundbreaking

works, made with leftover pieces of various kinds of fabric

the artist picked up for next to nothing and personally sewed by

hand to create figurative or abstract compositions. The importance

of these works was immediately recognised by both critics and

fellow artists: Stelios votsis, for example, defined them as

“a revelation and a milestone in the Cypriot art scene.” in terms of

iconography, this is probably the series, together with the cement

reliefs, where Savva more consciously and consistently recurred to

classical themes and motifs. With that said, what makes this series

especially poignant is probably the fact that through it he was

retrieving an anonymous, menial subsistence activity traditionally

delegated to women. With the humble gesture of adopting sewing

as an artistic technique, Savva ennobled the poor, rural realm in

which he himself was born and in which he took a simple and direct

pride. it might be interesting to note how this empathetic relation

with the peasant milieu is different from the idealised tradition,

heavily charged with symbolism, that characterised the work of

many canonical modern Cypriot artists. even though Savva deeply

respected and had established a close relation with artists of

the previous generation, some of his works, predominantly the

yfasmatographies, clearly mark the beginning of a new chapter

in Cypriot art.

Composition with Yellow Rectangle, 1966 – 1967

yfasmatography, 127 × 94 cm

Courtesy of the leventis municipal museum of nicosia

15

ABSTRACT PAinTinGS

During the ’60s, Savva’s work became increasingly more per-

sonal, and the paintings he produced were mostly abstract. While

he earned praise for his mastery of colour and composition, and

especially for ushering a modern idiom on the national scenario,

left-wing critics in particular thought that Savva’s work, mainly

the abstract production, was somehow disconnected from real-life

problems and failed to directly address the most pressing social

and political issues afflicting Cypriot society. Although abstraction

had by then been consolidated and accepted as part of contempo-

rary artistic production in europe and the United States, its actual

impact in terms of mobilising the public and propagating social

values was still being fiercely argued at the time, especially in the

colonial and postcolonial context. From this point of view, i.e.

due to the prolific discussions that his work constantly generated,

Savva became an unavoidable reference in the Cypriot art scene.

looking more closely at the works, on the other hand, and even

if most of them can be considered “abstract paintings”, the differ-

ences observed from one series to the other are such that it could be

argued that the actual thread connecting them is Savva’s constant

drive for experimentation. in some cases, the main concern seems

to be the balance of the composition; in others, the careful juxtapo-

sition of colours; in others still, the materiality of the paint itself, or

of the support where the paint is laid.

Bird of Mesaoria, 1962

mixed media on plywood, 38.5 × 73 cm

Courtesy of A. G. leventis Gallery, nicosia

16

RelieFS, FURniTURe AnD ARCHiTeCTURAl inTeRvenTionS

even though the number of cement reliefs included in the exhibition

is relatively small, this late series is to be considered quite emblem-

atic in Savva’s oeuvre. Apart from creating free-standing pieces

such as those presented here, during the ’60s he often collaborated

with architects and took up site-specific and often large-scale inter-

ventions for both private houses and commercial buildings. Stavros

economou (1917 – 2002), who actively and consistently worked on

introducing the international modern language to Cypriot architec-

ture, and is the author of the SPel building – hosting this exhibi-

tion, was one of the architects Savva most often collaborated with.

in terms of style, the cement reliefs and in general his architectural

interventions were for Savva another platform for experimentation,

where he could adopt a figurative iconography (inspired either by

classical scenes or by contemporary life) or recur to purely geomet-

rical and graphic motifs. As far as technique is concerned, most of

the cement reliefs were made by covering a styrofoam panel with

a coat of cement, often incrusted with pebbles, tesserae and other

materials. Tesserae, in particular, were frequently used in furniture

pieces that Savva designed and produced both for specific commis-

sions and for his own Apophasis Tavern.

Untitled, 1967 – 1968

Cement relief, 200 × 150 cm

Courtesy of Katerina and iro Athienitis, nicosia

19

PinS

The works included in this section belong to the last series produced

by Christoforos Savva, presented at the inaugural Cyprus Pavilion

at the 34th venice Biennial in 1968, alongside paintings and sculp-

tures by Andreas Chrysochos, Costas Joachim, George Kyriacou,

George Skotinos and Stelios votsis. A few weeks after the opening

of the Biennial, Savva passed away suddenly, after having joined

his family in the UK. The pins series mark a new chapter in Savva’s

endless search for new solutions and techniques. While the choice

of pins has been compared to the way German artist Günther

Uecker, among others, uses nails in his works, Savva’s pins are in

many respects a perfectly coherent development of his own poetics.

Their very fragile nature and the use of cheap materials, for exam-

ple, allows one to compare them with the yfasmatographies and

cement reliefs, the latter group of works sharing with the pins the

use of styrofoam as support material. From a formal point of view,

the use of geometrical shapes that are connected and superimposed

on each other, thus sometimes alluding to stylised landscapes or

natural forms, is similar to recourses used in some series of paint-

ings and reliefs.

Rising Form, 1967 – 1968

Pins on canvas on styrofoam, 85.5 × 50 cm

Courtesy of Art Galleries Archbishop makarios iii Foundation, nicosia

1924–1942 Christoforos Savva is born

in marathovounos, a small village in the

Famagusta District, to father Savvas

Christoforou and mother Kyriaki liasi-

Klatsia. He is able to attend the local

primary school, but instead of continu-

ing his education, he soon starts working

in the fields with his family in order to

contribute to the daily income. Already

as a teenager Savva starts producing

cartoon-like drawings, some of which

are published in a local newspaper.

1943–1946 Savva responds to the call

for volunteers made by AKEL – the

left-wing party of Cyprus, to join the

British Army in the fight against fascism

in World War ii. The call is described

as a courageous Apophasis [Decision].

During the period 1943 – 1946 Savva is

stationed in italy and egypt. He spends

hours in his tent trying to learn english

by reading the left-wing english news-

paper Daily Worker. Savva, also reads

the Greek magazine Epitheorisi Technis

[Art Review].

1947–1954 Following his discharge

from the Cyprus Regiment in 1946,

Savva travels to england. He originally

attends classes at Saint martin’s School

of Art; he feels, however, constrained by

the academic orientation of the school,

and soon enrolls in Heatherley School of

Fine Art in 1947. He studies under iain

macnab and Frederic Whiting. Together

with a group of fellow students from

Heatherley, he forms the artists’ collec-

tive “Pimlico Group”. There, he becomes

known as “the communist”.

Timeline

Collective sketchbook of the Pimlico Group, ca. 1952

Roddy maude-Roxby Archive

1954–1955 in June 1954, he returns

to Cyprus with Roddy maude-Roxby,

a friend and colleague at Heatherley.

They spend the summer in the village

of Ayios loucas, Famagusta, and tour

the island with their bicycles. Their field

trips are captured by maude-Roxby in

a series of photographs. Between 18 and

24 november 1954, Savva presents his

work to the local public for the first time

in a joint exhibition with maude-Roxby

that is organised by the British institute,

nicosia. His first solo exhibition takes

place in the ledra Palace Hotel, nicosia,

in December 1955.

1956 He is actively involved in the

Cypriot art scene and is one of the

founders of the Pancyprian Union of Art

lovers. in June, Savva moves to Paris

to study at Atelier André lhote. He

stays at Hotel namur, 39 Rue Delambre,

nearby Boulevard du montparnasse.

During his stay in Paris he visits muse-

ums, galleries and exhibitions; in the

summer, he travels through Southern

France, from Paris to marseille, then

to nice and Geneva. in one of his letters

to his close friend and poet Pantelis

michanikos Savva mentions that he feels

he has “really begun to see with the eye

of a painter for the first time”.

1957 in the summer, Savva returns to

Cyprus and spends his time working in

isolation in the mountainous village of

Kakopetria. in December, he presents

his work in an exhibition at the ledra

Palace Hotel. The exhibition catalogue

is foreworded by nicolas Poliakoff,

lhote’s assistant at the Atelier. Poliakoff

describes Savva as a great colourist and

craftsman, one of lhote’s best students.

André lhote in his atelier, 1956

Savva and maude-Roxby’s room-

studio in Ayios loucas, 1954

1958 in early 1958, Savva returns to

the Atelier and stays nearby Place Paul

Painlevé, close to Sorbonne. in his letter

to Adamantios Diamantis, Savva notes

that one of the main reasons for going

back to lhote’s atelier is the latter’s disci-

pline. in the summer, he travels to South

France, spending time in Cliousclat,

and sketches continuously. in July 1958,

he takes part in a group exhibition

at Gallery mariac in Paris, with five

paintings from the series Le Massacrer

de Kionele (The massacrer of Kioneli), a

reaction to the tragic incidents that took

place in Kioneli village in June 1958.

1959 Gerald Cruikshank, a British

diplomat and Savva’s patron, dies in

mont Blanc. in the summer, financial

difficulties force Savva to leave Paris. He

returns to Cyprus through Switzerland

and venice. in December, he exhibits

again at ledra Palace Hotel, where he

exhibits an yfasmatography for the first

time (Basketball, 1959). He also presents

works made with various media, includ-

ing wire, paper and sand.

Basketball (1959), Apophasis, ca. 1959

Photo: Phanis Parpairis

Christoforos Savva in front of

the painting Le Massacrer de Kionele

(The massacrer of Kioneli), 1958

1960 Savva establishes together with

Welsh artist Glyn Hughes Apophasis i

(Decision i), a gallery in the old town

of nicosia that can be described as the

first independent, cultural centre to have

opened its doors in Cyprus. Apophasis

opens with a joint exhibition of Savva

and Hughes (8 – 15 may) and soon moves

to a new location, in Apollonos Street.

various literary and art related events

(lectures, exhibitions, plays) take place

in Apophasis. Savva, Simone Burdeau

(Savva’s fellow student at the Atelier

André lhote) and Glyn Hughes present

their works in an exhibition organised

by UneSCo in Beirut.

1961 The first joint exhibition of works

by Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot

painters takes place in Apophasis

Gallery. in november, Savva presents

new yfasmatographies in Apophasis,

in an exhibition opened by Telemachos

Kanthos. He also produces his first wall

cement relief, installed in the house of

Costas economou in Kissonerga.

The work is made with cement, glass

and pebbles (1960 – 1961).

Theatre Βackdrop for ionesco’s The Bald Soprano, ca. 1963

oil on paper on canvas, 137.5 × 196 cm

Courtesy of evis Gavrielides and Jenny Gaitanopoulou, nicosia

1962 The newly established State

Collection of Cypriot Art purchases

Savva’s Still Life (1957 – 1959) as its first

acquisition. Apophasis Gallery continues

to host various literary and art related

events. Alongside George Pol. Georgiou,

Adamantios Diamantis and Ahmet

Ayhan mentesh, Savva represents Cyprus

in the exhibition Commonwealth Art

Today, organised by the Commonwealth

institute in london and edinburgh.

1963 Apophasis Gallery closes for the

public, but Savva continues to work

there. An exhibition of a series of works

produced by Savva in collaboration

with the poet Theoklis Kouyialis is one

of the last events hosted by Apophasis.

The exhibition presents water colours

by Savva placed over Kouyialis’ poems.

To supplement his income, Savva opens

Apophasis ii, a tavern in the area of the

venetian walls of the old city of nicosia.

in July, he travels to israel to visit an

artists’ commune and starts his corre-

spondence with Christine Waterhouse,

an english college student who was at

the time training to become a teacher.

Apophasis Tavern, ca. 1965–1966

Photo: Georges der Parthogh

1964 Christoforos Savva and Christine

Waterhouse wed in november and reside

in the premises of Apophasis Gallery.

Savva becomes a founding member of

the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts

(e.KA.Te.). Savva and the painter Costas

economou exchange correspondence in

which they discuss english, American and

French literature. Savva works with his

long-time collaborator Stavros economou

for the production of a series of large-

scale cement reliefs for the walls of the

miramare Hotel, limassol, Cyprus.

1965–1966 Together with Christine

Savva, they move out of Apophasis

Gallery and rent an apartment in

2 vyzantiou Street, nicosia. Their

daughter Ghika is born. in 1966, Savva

is elected as the chair of the Cyprus

Chamber of Fine Arts. He also

participates in its third Pancyprian

exhibition. At night, Savva serves

wine at Apophasis Tavern; in the

morning, he works in his studio.

Christine Savva in front of

Christoforos Savva’s Homage to

Jacques Villon (1963), ca. 1963–1964

Christoforos and Christine Savva’s

apartment in 2 vyzantiou Street,

nicosia, 1966

1967 in may, Savva’s solo exhibition

New shapes and colours is held at the

Hilton Hotel, nicosia. The Greek

Ambassador, menelaos Alexandrakis,

opens the exhibition, while mary

Patroclou-Stavrou writes the preface to

the catalogue, where she mentions that

Savva is mainly concerned with move-

ment and space. For Patroclou-Stavrou,

Savva reached the perfect abstraction

in the previous few years since “he

admitted that neither does myth ascribe

value, nor does imitation produce the

artwork”. Savva donates his yfasmato­

graphy Pietà to an auction held at

Parker Benet Gallery, new Work, USA,

raising funds for the World Peace Centre

at Bellapais.

1968 in his retrospective exhibition

at the Hall of the Goethe institute in

nicosia, Savva introduces his pin reliefs

and presents oil paintings, yfamsato­

graphies, cement reliefs, sculptures and

wood carvings made in the previous

decade. in June, he closes Apophasis

Tavern and travels to venice to take

part, together with Andreas Chrysochos,

Costas Joachim, George Skotinos,

Stelios votsis and George Kyriacou,

in the first official participation of

the Republic of Cyprus in the venice

Biennale. in late June, Savva travels to

england to meet Christine and Ghika.

He suddenly dies in Sheffield on the

13th of July. only a few weeks later his

son, marcos Christoforos, is born.

Christoforos Savva, George Kyriacou and George Skotinos

at the Cyprus Pavilion, venice Biennale, 1968

Christoforos Savva:

Untimely on Τime

(1924–1968) 

31 January – 31 march 2019

The exhibition Christoforos Savva:

Untimely on Time (1924 – 1968) 

was co-organised by the Cyprus

ministry of education and Culture,

Cultural Services and Point Centre

for Contemporary Art, nicosia,

and was presented at the:

State Gallery of

Contemporary Art

SPel

73 Ammohostou Street

1016 nicosia, Cyprus

info@moca.org.cy

www.moca.org.cy

exhibition:

Curator

Jacopo Crivelli visconti

Project Directors

louli michaelidou

(Cyprus ministry of education and

Culture, Cultural Services)

Andre Zivanari

(Point Centre for Contemporary Art)

Project manager

marina Christodoulidou

Project Coordinator

maria mina

Research

marina Christodoulidou (exhibition)

Polina nikolaou (archive, exhibition)

Graphic Design and

exhibition Architecture

Studio manuel Raeder

Photography

louca Studios

exhibition installation

Rumen Tropchev

Peter eramian

Supporters

lellos P Demetriades law office llC 

Alexis Tsielepis

exhibition Guide:

Texts

Jacopo Crivelli visconti

Timeline

Polina nikolaou

Graphic Design

Studio manuel Raeder

Copyediting

Andry Panayiotou

Printing

nicolaou Printers, Chr. nicolaou

& Sons ltd.

Printed in Cyprus

First edition, 1000 copies

Second, revised edition, 500 copies

© 2019 the authors, Christoforos Savva

1968, Cyprus ministry of education

and Culture, Point Centre for

Contemporary Art. All rights reserved.

no part of this publication may be

reproduced in any form without

written permission from the publishers.

The editors and publishers gratefully

acknowledge the permission granted to

reproduce the copyrighted material in

this book. every effort has been made

to contact the rightful owners with

regards to copyrights and permissions.

We apologise for any inadvertent errors

or omissions and would be grateful if

notified of any corrections that should

be incorporated in future reprints

or editions of this publication.

miniSTRy oF eDUCATion

AnD CUlTURe

CUlTURAl SeRviCeS

27 ifigenias Street

2007 nicosia, Cyprus

Tel. +357 22 809800

info@culture.moec.gov.cy

www.moec.gov.cy

PoinT CenTRe FoR

ConTemPoRARy ART

megaro Hadjisavva

2 evagorou Avenue

1097 nicosia, Cyprus

Tel. +357 22 662053

info@pointcentre.org

www.pointcentre.org