Glyn Hughes 1931 - 2014

99 The Apophasis (Decision) Gallery opened in the early spring of 1960 in Christoforos Savvas’ residence in Sophocleous Street, Nicosia, and exhibitions were held outside in the yard. During that same summer, the gallery moved to a better place in Apollo Street, where Glyn Hughes and Christoforos Savva showed their own and other artists’ work, and also organized lectures, discussions, traditional music nights and play readings. According to Glyn: “With Savva’s socialist connections, there were speakers like the great Russian film director, Sergei Bondarchuk, and a photographic exhibition from the Hermitage Museum, in what was then Leningrad (not well received because it was not considered sufficiently ‘modern’).” A Turkish Cypriot student arranged what must have been a unique occasion at this time, when Glyn showed abstract work at the 17th century “Mevlevi Tekke” (mosque and tekke of the Dancing Dervishes). The exhibition was opened by the British diplomat, Ivor Porter. In 1960, Hughes, Savva and the French artist Simone Bordeaux visited Beirut, where their work was shown in a UNESCO exhibition. During this time, he also travelled to Damascus with Savva, which triggered his interest for Syria. The year 1962 was a very creative period for Hughes and Savva. They explored the possibilities of using newmaterials found in the countryside, thereby rethinking the space limits within any given area. Glyn used to say: “That particular period of time deserves a socio-political analysis to justify reasons for acting and doing exactly what we did, just because we were in Cyprus and not somewhere else.” In 1963, Glyn and the well-known painter Giorgos Skoteinos held a joint exhibition in the municipal gardens of Famagusta, suitably called Al Fresco ( Outdoors ). As a young man, Skoteinos had been one of the fighters of EOKA (the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) and became a painter after his incarceration in Wormwood Scrubs prison in London. They showed huge canvases – those of Skoteinos were inspired by antiquity and Glyn’s were large sanded abstracts. Glyn recalls his pictures being brought from Nicosia on the top of a car and one of them being blown off and discovered the next day, nibbled by goats, in a field on the road to Famagusta. Apophasis Gallery [1960–1964]