By Maria Gregoriou
The new book Costas Joachim – Dialogue with the Surface, which has been complied by artist and author Susan Kerr will be presented on Tuesday at the main lecture hall of the central offices of the Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia at 7.30pm.
The book, which celebrates the life and work of the Cypriot artist, gives much emphasis on his development as a Cypriot and international artist through his paintings, exhibitions and participation in International Biennales such as Venice, Sao Paolo, Paris and Florence. The 500 page book presents and documents the artist’s lifetime work as a visual artist and painter. It also outlines his life story in relation to his development as an artist, his research into visual perception and abstraction as a ‘dialogue with the surface’-including his struggles and achievements.
Kerr (who is also Joachim’s wife) divides this new publication into four parts which gives an illustrated chronological biography of the artist, art criticism internationally, up to 300 colour plates of his paintings, and speeches and press cuttings from items over the past fifty years, relating to his exhibitions and work. This layout portrays how the artist, who works in Cyprus and abroad, has come face-to-face and overcome the difficulties of life as an artist, while achieving recognition for his contribution to art on the island and on an internatianl scale.
The artist, from Bellapais, studied art at Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, UK, and the University of Bristol, from 1960, with specialisation in painting, sculpture and visual perception. He also specialised in art education.
In 1963 he was awarded the Degree of Fine Arts and Education from the University of Bristol and in 1975, he received the Certificate of Fine Art of the School of Fine Arts of the Polytechnic in Athens. In 1981 he received the Diploma of Post Graduate Studies in aesthetics and history of art, at Byam Shaw and Chelsea College of Art, London.
He established the Bellapais Studio & Gallery in Bellapais along with Kerr in 1972, which attracted visitors from places all over the world such as London, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Los Angeles, Acapulco, Paris, Venice and Florence. The gallery is now operating in Nicosia.
Joachim has held 21 solo exhibitions in Cyprus and Germany, and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in Cyprus and in in Berlin, Munich, Los Angeles, Paris, Montecatini, Hamburg, Athens and London, among others. He has also represented Cyprus at several International Biennale.
Kerr has known Joachim since they met at Bath Academy of Art in 1961. She studied Fine Arts, Painting and Graphic Design (NDD) and Art Education in Leicester University (ATD) 1966.
As an educationalist, Kerr has taught English as a foreign language to advance levels in Athens and in Cyprus, and Visual Arts at all levels at the American International School in Cyprus from 1987 to 2008. She has also written and designed all exhibition catalogues for Bellapais Studio and written comments on art exhibitions. Since 2008 the author has been working on her own research in painting and graphic design, including the book to be presented on Tuesday – which has been submitted for the award of Publication Excellence 2015 – and has participated in International Biennale and other art exhibitions in Italy, Austria and London.
The main speakers will be Ouranios Ioannides, former Minister of Education and Culture, and Art Historian S. Nikita.
Costas Joachim: Dialogue with the Surface
Book presentation on contemporary art in painting by Susan Kerr. March 24. Lecture hall of the central offices of the Bank of Cyprus, Statinou Street, Aya Paraskevi, Nicosia. 7.30pm. Tel: 99-581536
