Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1933 Anaphotia, Cyprus

Died: 2014 Paphos, Cyprus

Year of Migration to the UK: 1953

Other name/s: Stasinos Paraskos

Biography

Painter Stass Paraskos was born Stasinos Paraskos in 1933 into a poor family of shepherds in the village of Anaphotia (now Anafotida) near Larnaca, Cyprus (then part of the British Empire). In 1953 his father sent him to England, where he started to work as a cook at his brother's restaurant in Leeds, which was a popular local haunt for students from Leeds School of Art. Although lacking the necessary qualifications, he was admitted to Leeds College of Art (1956–58) thanks to the support of the then Head of Fine Art, Harry Thubron. During this time, Paraskos befriended some of the key artists who would influence his approach to art, including the painter Terry Frost, the Fluxus performance artist Robin Page, the Surrealist artists Tony Earnshaw and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and the sculptor Laurie Burt. It was Frost who persuaded Paraskos to move to Cornwall in 1959 and live among the artists of the St Ives School. There, Paraskos shared a studio with Barns-Graham until he returned to Leeds in 1961 and began teaching at Leeds College of Art. Paraskos later worked as a lecturer in the department of undergraduate studies at Leicester College of Art and in the painting department at Leeds Polytechnic, before becoming a Lecturer in Fine Art at Canterbury College of Art in 1970. When the latter became the Kent Institute of Art & Design, he was appointed Senior Lecturer and then Head of Painting.

In 1966, following an exhibition entitled Lovers and Romances at the Leeds Institute, Paraskos was involved in a notorious court case in which it was alleged he displayed paintings considered 'lewd and obscene', in contravention of the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and 1838 and under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959. Prominent figures of the art world, including Sir Herbert Read (originally a local Leeds man), Quentin Bell and Norbert Lynton, were called as witnesses for the defence, praising the high quality of Paraskos' work and its 'poetic, unrealistic character' (The Guardian 1967, p. 7). Messages of support were also sent by Britain's Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, but Paraskos eventually lost the trial and was fined five pounds. This made him the last artist in England to be prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act which had previously been used against Penguin, publishers of DH Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover, in a notorious trial in 1960. Three of Stass's reputedly obscene paintings were eventually acquired by the Tate Gallery in 2006. In 1967, Paraskos participated in the group exhibition Fantasy and Figuration alongside Pat Douthwaite, Herbert Kitchen and Ian Dury at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.

In 1969 Paraskos exhibited drawings on a mythological theme at Gallery Caballa, Harrogate. The Guardian noted that although in Stass’s paintings forms were too simple, colours crude and tones muddled, ‘the subjects are always solid and real: a field, sheep and goats […] a woman. They are being used or doing things […] They are untroubled, warm, full of substance like earth’ (Bates 1970, p. 8). Paraskos' dream of opening an art school in Cyprus based on his experiences in Britain began to see some light in 1969 when he ran a summer school for British art students in Famagusta. The school later relocated to Lemba, Paphos in the 1980s and evolved into the Cyprus College of Art, with Paraskos as its principal. Using his connections in the British art world, he was able to bring a large number of well-known international artists to Cyprus College of Art, including Anthony Caro, Dennis Creffield, Jennifer Durrant, Terry Frost, Clive Head, Michael Kidner, Mali Morris, Euan Uglow and Rachel Whiteread. After his retirement from Canterbury, Paraskos resettled in Cyprus in 1989.

Stass Paraskos died in Paphos, Cyprus in 2014. Paraskos' work was rooted in the history and culture of Cyprus, combining elements from the iconography of Cypriot folk art and the Byzantine church, as well as influences of modern masters, such as Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. Characterised by a bright palette and vigorous style, his paintings described scenes from Paraskos' childhood and the everyday and sometimes tragic life of Cypriot villages and towns. In 2013, the Tetley Art Gallery in Leeds celebrated Paraskos' work in the exhibition Stass Paraskos: Lovers & Romances. His works are held in several UK public collections, including Tate, Leeds City Art Gallery, Arts Council Collection and University of Leeds. In 2003, a book on Paraskos by Norbert Lynton was published by the Orange Press and in early 2022 a two-part BBC documentary entitled Mary Beard's Forbidden Art highlighted the Paraskos trial, among a number of instances where artworks have been 'forbidden'. Paraskos' son, Michael Paraskos (b. 1969) is a London-based British-Cypriot art historian, lecturer and writer who has taught at Imperial College London and University of Hull among other UK institutions.

Related books

Norbert Lynton, Stass Paraskos (London: Orange Press, 2003)
John Cornall, 'Earth Wisdom: Cypriot Connections in British Art: Geoffrey Rigden & Stass Paraskos', The London Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 11, February 1996, p. 74
Merete Bates, 'Stass Paraskos', The Guardian, 22 May 1970, p. 8
Merete Bates, 'The Gallery Caballa', The Guardian, 13 December 1969, p. 6
Norbert Lynton 'Art and the Expert Witness', The Guardian, 5 January 1967, p. 7
'Pictures Obscene, Bench Say', The Times, 21 December 1966, p. 8
Michael Parkin, 'Obscene' Pictures: Artist Fined', The Guardian, 21 December 1966, p. 3
'Police Remove Art Exhibits', The Times, 2 May 1966, p. 7

Public collections

Related organisations

Canterbury College of Art (senior lecturer and head of painting)
Cyprus College of Art (founder)
Leeds College of Art (student, 1956–58)
Leeds Polytechnic (lecturer)
Leicester College of Art (lecturer)

Selected exhibitions

Stass Paraskos: Lovers & Romances, Tetley Art Gallery, Leeds (2014)
Solo exhibition, Leeds College of Art & Design (2009)
Stass Paraskos, Paintings, Walton Gallery (1969)
Works by Stass Paraskos, Gallery Caballa, Harrogate (1969)
Fantasy and Figuration, Institute of Contemporary Arts (1967)
Leeds Institute (1966)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Stass Paraskos]