"Votsis stelios"

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Stelios Votsis (1929 – 9 November 2012) was one of the greatest artists in Cyprus. He studied painting at Saint Martin’s School of Art, Sir John Cass College of Art and Royal Academy in London. He graduated from the Slade School of Art of the University of London in 1955.

He presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in Cyprus and also in countries such as Greece, England, Italy (Bienale Venice), Holland, India, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Krakow, Norway, Spain, Germany, America etc.

A representative of the generation of Cypriot artists who appeared in the foreground in the period after the proclamation of Independence, Stelios Votsis embodied, with amazing courage, through his work, the orientation of Cypriot art to the teachings and conquests of the world's artistic creation and its consequent, inevitable break with the then accepted values.

He pioneered the establishment of the Chamber of Fine Arts Cyprus (E.C. TE) and played an important role in the course and development of Cyprus Art.

Spirit restless and in constant search, Stelios Votsis did not restrict his action to purely artistic creation. From the battlements of the Chamber of Fine Arts, which has been president for years, he fought for the awareness of wider society as to the value of artistic creation.

Project
Stelios Votsis belonged to the category of artists who use many forms of expression. As a young Picasso he watched with professional interest developments in modern art and fertilized his work with new visual ideas.

In the mid-20th century, when Votsis matured as an artist, the main flow to art was abstract expression. Votsis with the restless spirit could not remain indifferent to the challenges of an important artistic movement. He abandoned the figure, influenced by the school of Euston Road, and adopted the new movement with enthusiasm.

The result was to create the most inspiring works of abstract art ever done in Cyprus!

Votsis has a fresh and vivid imagination that allows him to simplify, add and remove from his compositions with comfort and determination.

It gives understandable solutions to complex problems such as a folk painter. He easily communicates his works, which are accessible to all, from the most uneducated farmer to the learned university professor.

Images of lovers, kites, cyclists and windmills carry the lyrical feeling of folk singing. The spaces in which they live are flat and give the representations a dynamic presence.

In addition to the short story, his works include symbols of spiritual content in geometric shapes. These are rhythmically linked to the evidence and the image maintains its unity. The meanings of symbols are addressed to people with specialized knowledge.

Votsis was human