Telemachos Kanthos

Telemachus Kanthos (Greek Τηλέμαχος Κάνθος, born February 24, 1910 in Alona / Pitsilia, Cyprus, † 18 November 1993 in Nicosia ) was a Cypriot painter and printmaker of the first on the island. He is considered one of the fathers of Cypriot art. In his paintings he made, inter alia, the Cypriot countryside and country life dar.

1929 Kanthos went to Athens to study architecture at first, but he soon devoted himself exclusively to painting and graphics. He was a student of Dimitrios Biskinis, Spyridon Vikatos and Oumbertos Argyros; to his fellow students at the Academy of Fine Arts Athens included Yannis Tsarouchis and Nikos Engonopoulos. When Yiannis Kefallinos Kanthos learned lithography, woodcut and copperplate engraving.

With the beginning of World War II, he returned to Cyprus and worked as a painter and graphic artist. Between 1942-1949 he worked as a set designer and costume designer for the newly established Cypriot theater. In 1942-44 he worked as an art teacher at the high school in Famagusta and between 1950-69 on " Pankyprion gymnasium " in Nicosia. He also traveled to various European cultural centers and 1950 he spent some time in London, where he was interested in both the Old Masters and contemporary art movements. After 1975 he was a freelance artist. As a painter, he worked in Cyprus, Athens, Corfu, London and Vienna.

His first solo exhibition denied Kanthos 1934 in Famagusta. It was followed by many solo exhibitions and participation in numerous international art exhibitions, including in London, Athens, Vienna, Boston, Cairo, Belgrade, Prague, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Alexandria and Baghdad. Particularly noteworthy are among the major retrospective at the National Gallery of Greece in Athens ( 1982) and an exhibition in the Hofgalerie Palffy Palace in Vienna (1991).

1979 Kanthos was honored by the Academy of Athens for his life's work and his contribution to the art with a price. In 1984, he won the second prize in the woodcut at the XV. Biennale of Alexandria.

Published in 1999, Paschalis Papapetrou a 73 -minute documentary about Kanthos