Cypriot collection @Leventis Gallery

_about the collection

The Cyprus Collection of the A. G. Leventis Foundation began to be assembled in the early 1990s. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees decided that this Collection would focus, initially, on the works of the first generation of artists and the works of some of the artists of the second generation.

The Collection includes representative and emblematic works by artists born between 1884 and 1930. The study of the form and content of the Collection’s works, which date from the early to the last decades of the 20th century, is essential and necessary in order to understand the course followed by Cypriot art during the first century after its revival.

The island’s state of isolation, together with the financial and cultural deprivation experienced by Cyprus during the three centuries of Ottoman rule, hampered the development of the visual arts. From the 16th century to the 20th, the artistic creativity of the Cypriot people was channelled and expressed exclusively through folk and Byzantine art. Cyprus’ state of servitude did not allow it to participate in any way in the rich artistic journey on which Europe had embarked since the Renaissance.

The art that developed in Cyprus, and the course it followed, is directly linked to the history of the island and the prevailing political, social, economic and cultural conditions.Their work has experiential origins and draws inspiration from the landscape, people’s daily life and the island’s modern history. [source: Leventis website]

_highlights

_links

▶▶ the gallery's official website
▶▶ wikipedia page of the gallery
▶▶ virtual exhibition