The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the invasion and subsequent division of Cyprus. With respect to this ‘loaded’ anniversary, the A. G. Leventis Gallery has chosen to engage with the subject through the eyes of the Cypriot artist Telemachos Kanthos (1910-1993). With a focus on two popular and seemingly unrelated subjects in the artist’s oeuvre – the ‘Women’s Bazaar’ and the ‘Hard Years’ series – the exhibition hopes to present fresh perspectives and narratives of Cyprus and its people’s complex history.

The artworks in the exhibition, which span from the 1940s until the early 1990s, reveal the artist’s ongoing concern with the social, political and historical events and changes taking place around him. They reflect a deep love of his country and its people, as well as a sensitive and revealing eye. We encounter the serenity and peaceful cohabitation of a multicultural community in the ‘Women’s Bazaar’ series, juxtaposed yet interspersed with the works of the ‘Hard Years’ series, a nuanced response to the realities of conflict and war.

The exhibition aims to flesh out an image of an artist affectively engaged in the world around him, with a focus on the historical realities of the island during the period in which he was working. It is hoped, in this way, to open up space for questions with regard to how we comprehend history and what the role of art is, or could be, in that understanding. The exhibition aspires to motivate the viewer to contemplate afresh a topic that many feel they already know only too well.