PANTELI, Maria (ed.)
The Memory of the Archive: Christoforos Savva in the 1954 – 1968 Cypriot Press & Literary Periodicals

The Memory of The Archive: Christoforos Savva in the 1954–1968 Cypriot Press & Literary Periodicals is published on the occasion of the survey exhibition project Untimely on Time: Christoforos Savva (1924–1968), at the State Gallery of Contemporary Art – SPEL, Nocosia, Cyprus, in 2019. The book is a compilation and an archive of press cuttings, consisting of more than two hundred articles, commentaries, reports, and advertisements that appeared in the mainstream Cypriot press and literary periodicals between 1954 and 1968 and relate to the Christoforos Savva. The press cuttings are treated as objects with a story, a narrative worth telling with the goal of shedding new light on the artist’s life and career.

Christoforos Savva is widely acknowledged as one of the most groundbreaking Cypriot artists of the 20th 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, the sculptures, the 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 Savva’s work, from Greek and African Classical Art to Cypriot handicrafts, Folk Art, Informal Art, Pop Art, and avant-garde movements, all seem to suggest that strictly formal questions were not his main concern. In 1968, Savva was one of the artists selected to represent Cyprus in its inaugural Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, but only a few days after the opening, he died suddenly in Sheffield, UK. [publisher's note]

Published by Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite, 2019
Design by Studio Manuel Raeder
Art History / Facsimile & Reprints