Glyn Hughes 1931 - 2014

177 Although Glyn Hughes was doing conceptual work since the 1960s and 1970s (an important installation for the European Cultural Month in 1995 was Diodos , in the tunnel entry to Paphos Gate in Nicosia), the artist never let a day go by without working on a canvas or drawing. In times of crisis, either in Cyprus or in stressful situations he was particularly aware of in other parts of the world (he read the Guardian almost every day), he painted with intensity and in brilliant colour. This is reflected in some of the titles of his exhibitions: Nicosia: Intermittent Stress (1956– 1991 ), a retrospective at the Melina Merkouri Hall in Nicosia and The World Gone Wrong at Gloria Gallery in 2001. But there were optimistic times too: There’ll Always be Blue Skies, albeit tongue in cheek, again at Gloria Gallery in 1996. Although by then known as a colourist, Glyn had an all-white show at Zygos Gallery, Nicosia in 1971; since then, most of his Nicosia exhibitions were held at Gloria Gallery, but he also exhibited twice at Diaspro, and in mixed exhibitions, especially the EKATE (Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts) annual, which he often curated. Outside the capital, he has also shown at Kyklos in Paphos , Kypriaki Gonia in Larnaca and Peter’s Gallery in Limassol. But there had been other venues: coffee shops, restaurants (particularly Socrates’ in the old town – his favourite eating place for many years) and the street. He participated in theme exhibitions at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation (NiMAC), among which the 1960–1974 Dawn of the Republic exhibition in June 2002. One of his most important paintings, Chalcolithic , of which 100 silk-screen prints were made, was inspired by a male terracotta figurine from the Pierides Foundation Museum in Larnaca, but, strangely, was also linked with a similar Cycladic figure made by a child Glyn was teaching long before. In the early 1990s, Glyn made several journeys to Serbia, where for a while he reverted to landscape painting. From 1994 to 2003, Glyn presented a series of lectures on a number of well-known British and other artists who were active in Britain. The series, called Symposiart , was organised by the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation and the British Council, and was supported by the Hellenic Bank. Glyn either lectured on the work of these artists or visited them in Great Britain for video interviews, which were shown during his lectures. Some came to NiMAC themselves and talked about their work. The list includes Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, David Bomberg, Anthony Gormley, David Nash, Richard Wentworth and David Mach (who actually created a sculpture for the Municipal Arts Centre), as well as American Ronald Brooks Kitaj and Portuguese Paula Rego. The Mature Years [1994–2005]