Αψίδα

Definitive Issue 2014-2015, Intellectual Personalities

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Title

Definitive Issue 2014-2015, Intellectual Personalities

Description

Costas Montis was born in Ammochostos in 1914. He studied law at the University of Athens but never practiced as a lawyer. He had a varied career as a teacher, poet, journalist, editor and as Director of Tourism from 1960 to 1976 when he retired.

He was a prolific writer having published several works in the Cypriot dialect. He was instrumental in the founding of the first professional theatre in 1942 and wrote many plays including adaptations of the plays of Aristophanes. As a poet he is recognized as Cyprus’ greatest and his long poetic sequence “Letters to Mother” is considered a masterpiece.

In 1964 his book “Closed Doors” was published in Greek. It is a novel narrating the struggle for Cypriot freedom in which the narrator re-lives the curfews, communal fines, informers, tortures and other ills that were endured during the liberation uprising of 1955-1959. It is a record of life as it was in Lefkosia during the emergency period of the 1950s. For those who have read Lawrence Durell’s “Bitter Lemons” it would be good to read Montis’ “Closed Doors” as it depicts the other side of the coin. There is an English translation by S. G. Stavrou and David Roessel.

Costas Montis has had many honours bestowed on him including an honourary doctorate from the University of Athens and an Award for Excellence in Letters and Arts from the Republic of Cyprus. In 1999 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize by the School of Philosophy of the University of Cyprus and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Costas Montis died in 2004 and will be remembered as one of the founders of modern Cypriot literature.
The pioneers of contemporary Cypriot art of whom Kashalos is one often worked under difficult conditions but managed to lay the foundations for the development of Cypriot art.

Cyprus in the first half of the 20th century was predominantly agricultural and the pioneer painters drew inspiration from rural everyday life of the people as well as old customs and traditions.

Michael Kashalos, born in 1885 in the village of Asha, was a self-taught naïve artist whose paintings portrayed the peasantry and the simple life of the countryside. In his painting “Scything” we see a farmer transporting women reapers with their scythes in his donkey driven cart and meeting another field worker on the road close to the corn fields. It reminds one of past nostalgic years long since forgotten. In another painting he depicts men and women eating “pilafi” after having harvested the corn.

In 1969, Kashalos represented Cyprus with ten paintings at the Bratislava 2nd Triennale of naïve art where he was presented with one of the main awards. This was the decisive moment that established his name and reputation.

Michael Kashalos is considered the father of contemporary Cypriot art and many of his works are in private collections. At the A.G.Leventis Gallery in Lefkosia one can view his painting “The Kalikantzari (Goblins)”.

Kashalos died in 1974 having been badly wounded when the Turkish army captured his village.

Source

Cyprus Post, Republic of Cyprus
Κυπριακά Ταχυδρομεία, Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία

Publisher

Library of Cyprus University of Technology

Contributor

Designers: Costas Panayi, Marianna Iacovou, Sofia Malecos

Rights

Απαγορεύεται η δημοσίευση ή αναπαραγωγή, ηλεκτρονική ή άλλη χωρίς τη γραπτή συγκατάθεση του δημιουργού.

Relation

www.cypruspost.gov.cy

Format

jpg

Language

en

Type

Identifier

2014CS255, 2014CS256, 2014CS257, 2014CS258, 2014CS259, , 2014CS261, 2014CS262, 2014CS263, 2014CS264, 2014CS265, 2014CS266

Coverage

35.160417, 33.346556

Citation

Cyprus Post, Republic of Cyprus Κυπριακά Ταχυδρομεία, Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, “Definitive Issue 2014-2015, Intellectual Personalities,” Αψίδα, accessed March 29, 2024, https://apsida.cut.ac.cy/items/show/44248.