JOHN Corbidge, who died on Monday night at the age of 68, was inspired by the light of the Mediterranean, where he spent all of his adult life.
Born in Sheffield in 1935, he turned his back on the cold, grey skies of northern England, saying he could not live in a place where the sun almost never shone. Yorkshire was no place for a man with a Mediterranean temperament, like Corbidge.
After completing his studies at the University of London’s Slade School of Art, he travelled and worked in Italy, Greece and Cyprus, eventually, settling in Bellapais in 1960, where he set up his studio.
He left Kyrenia after the Turkish invasion in 1974 and moved to Trieste in Italy. He returned to Cyprus with his wife Andri in 1989 and settled in Lania, where he worked until his death.
“He had come here with a technical brilliance that he utilised with real feeling for this country using imagery of the present and the past. It must not be forgotten that apart from a great colourist he was also outstanding at drawing,” said artist Glyn Hughes who knew Corbidge for 43 years.
“I only met him a couple of times but he was a very good painter,” said Stas Paraskos founder of the Cyprus school of art in Lemba, who was familiar with Corbidge’s work, which he said fell into two categories.
“One was very inspired and it had to do with Cyprus and the other kind had an intellectual flavour about it,” he said. “But some of his best work centered around Cyprus.”
Natassa Tofarides, director of the Apocalypse Gallery in Nicosia, who was very close friend of Corbidge, described the artist as a “very interesting person rich in intellect” and an excellent Greek speaker who not only painted but was also a writer.
“He loved Cyprus and Greece generally and that’s why his works were influenced and inspired from the Greek and Cyprus civilisations,” she said. “You could always see this in his work. He was a revolutionary actually and never accepted things easily.
“He was living in Bellapais when the invasion happened so he lost everything in 1974. He lost his studio and paintings and everything, so he went to Italy with his wife for more than 10 years.”
Tofarides said Apocalypse had held more than 10 Corbidge exhibitions over the years, describing them as “really successful”.
“They were beautiful works, and not only beautiful but also very very rich works,” she said.
Corbidge is survived by his two children Alexandros and Melissa who live abroad.
