Get thee to Paphos district

THE catalogues are out. Nic Costa and his helpers would like to thank everybody, both artists and sponsors, who had faith in Open Studios.

Now in its second year, it has doubled in size and they consider it will hopefully become one of the most important art events on the island in the coming years.

"Very often artists find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to the promotion and marketing of their work. Open Studios hopes to help redress this imbalance and put the needs of the artist first," say the organiSers.

"We would also like to thank you, the members of the public who support this event by taking the time to go around and meet the artists and see their work. The success of the scheme ultimately depends on the general interest and willingness of the public to go out and discover the artists within their midst and hope that you will encourage others to discover these hidden delights."

88 artists are showing their latest work

This year’s organisers are:

Nic Costa, Aristotelis Demetriou, George Georgiades, Phyllis Reardon, Mary-Beth Trotter and Marina Zach.

Open Studios is an annual event; the next one is scheduled for October 2008.

If you wish to take part email: info@openstudioscy.com. You can find the Open Studios guide (free) in supermarkets and kiosks. Also ring 99143293

The Right Honourable Sir Edward Du Cann KBE writes in the catalogue:

"Non-profit making, the aim of Open Studios is to popularise art. This is an excellent ambition. Since the idea was launched in England some 20 years ago it has spread world wide.

"This year 2007, Paphos and Limassol have combined. Some 90 or so artists are featured from 14 different countries. This is a creditable way to bring the communities together, hopefully in our own island also, in time perhaps.

“Above all, here is a chance for the public to meet artists, and for our artists to benefit from widespread publicity. Local residents like myself wish Open Studios every success. It well merits it. I hope that it may become an annual event."

Savvas Vergas, Mayor of Paphos writes an introduction about Open Studios in the catalogue:

"The inception of an annual Open Studios event constitutes a significant landmark for the visual arts in Cyprus. This year, artists and craftspeople from two major Cypriot cities are taking part. Every weekend, for the whole month of October in both Paphos and Limassol, almost 90 artists from 14 different nationalities will be opening their doors to the public.

"The Municipality of Paphos welcomes this enterprise which promotes cultural interchange between members of the public, artists, and craftspeople. Moreover, it offers opportunities not only for upcoming artists but also for well-established ones to show their work to the public.

“Today, more than ever before, art should be used as a means to enhance relationships and communications between individuals.

“Open Studios proves that Art is not just an elitist activity but rather a way of creative expression that invites everyone to take part.

"With these thoughts in mind, I would like to wish you all a successful and creative outcome."

Individual artists – and friends - have been sending in extra information.

Here is a comment from G.J.J.R. Losekoot who writes on Joyce Pinas.

"Are you curious? Do you want to see something new? And are you prepared to climb a few stairs? Then you will be welcome at Art Studio Joy, the studio with the high steps, in Paphos. Stroll through the Avenue Makarios and take the second street on your right, on the other side of Axel’s, walk up the stairs and pay her a visit.

"The present exhibition gives a good view of the many-sidedness of the South American artist Joyce Pinas.

"She was born in Surinam to be precise, and studied art in Paramaribo and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) at the Academy of Art (Hoge Schoool voor de Kunsten) where she finished her studies as an artist and an art teacher. Not only technically is her work of a high standard, it also has a special touch from the vivid South American colours. She works as easily with oil as with acrylic.

"Watercolours and aquarelle paintings (quite different from each other) don’t have any secrets for her either. Joyce loves creating a still life. especially with flowers, but her greatest love still is painting the female nude.

"You will find Art Studio Joy in the centre of Paphos at 4,Costa Georgiou Street, the second street on your right from Makarios Avenue (coming from the police station) for more details call 92266957.

Celia Philippou

at Gloria’s Gallery

This exhibition opened a couple of days ago, continuing until the 18th of the month.

Celia was born in Nicosia.

In 1977-80 she studied at the Vacalo School of Art and Design in Athens. She has been a teacher of Art since 1990, a member of the Conservatory of Fine Arts in Athens.

Her paintings are to be found in private collections in Cyprus and abroad. This, her second exhibition at Gloria’s is of her recent landscapes and seascapes with the title “Over the Rainbow".

Mediterranean light, colours, forms and shapes constitute a powerful motive for her. In paintings these seascapes and landscapes, she tries to express her feelings in a metaphysical frame of mind as she ponders over these places, or recalls them from memory. A superb exhibition catching the atmosphere in wonderful colour. Celia has made a triumphant opening to the autumn scene. Large and small. Extremely covetable.

Stephos Metaxas

at Apocalypse Gallery

Loukis Papaphilipou will open this, what promises to be, a most important exhibition on Tuesday 18th September.

Bold colour, abstract forms full of rhythm, movement and exciting detail. Until September 29.

The exhibition is titled "Notes, Sounds, Silence".

Natura Madre, Natura Morta

Still Lives in all their splendour at the Hellenic Bank head office. Until 28th of the month.

Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art

THE Last Riot 2, AES + F.

A bit of a mystery this.

See picture.

Opening tonight at 8pm. Until October 10.

Texas museum exhibit features

unusual and traditional portraits

from turn of the 20th century

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)

When unsuspecting models posed for painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, what appeared on canvas sometimes barely resembled a human, much less a portrait.

Using geometric shapes, lines and out-of-proportion features, artists such as Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse experimented with the genre. They considered the paintings forms of art instead of grandiose and more flattering versions of the subjects, an approach used in traditional portraiture.

Nearly 100 paintings are on display at Fort Worth, Texas' Kimbell Art Museum in ''The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso.'' In its second and final venue, the exhibit runs through Sept. 16 and includes some sculptures.

''This exhibit has a whole range of works - quite respectful portraits that anyone would want done of themselves to downright aggressively caricaturelike,'' said Malcolm Warner, the Kimbell's acting director.

''Because portraits were such an established form of art, it was fun for these rather subversive artists to play around with it because they could guarantee a bit of shock value.''

Matisse's 1914 portrait, ''Yvonne Landsberg,'' surprised her family so much that they declined to buy it, saying it looked nothing like their 20-year-old daughter, Warner said. The face appears to be a mask, and lines around her body resemble wings.

Van Gogh used bright colours and loose brushstrokes to move away from realistic likenesses, including in his 1888 piece, ''The Postman Joseph Roulin.'' Roulin helped care for him after he cut off his ear.

In Picasso's 1909 portrait of his girlfriend, Fernande, her face is a mix of geometric shapes.

But in 1923, Picasso painted a traditional portrait of his wife, Olga, looking solemn as she sat with one arm resting against the back of the chair. His return to the classic portrait stemmed from the end of World War I and society's yearning to return to more orderly things, Warner said.

Egon Schiele's 1915 full-length portrait of his wife, Edith, initially appears traditional, depicting her in a colourful striped dress over a white ruffled blouse. But she appears puppetlike with her blank expression and loose hands and feet, indicating that her husband was not trying to portray her in a flattering light, Warner said.

Some extreme portraits have deeper meaning. Francis Bacon's 1968, ''Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror,'' shows a man slumped in a chair with the mirror image of his face split open. Dyer, Bacon's lover, was a former criminal who died of a drug overdose.

In 1965's ''Reflection With Two Children (Self-Portrait),'' artist Lucian Freud, the grandson of the famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, looms large over two young children.

David Hockney's brightly coloured ''Model With Unfinished Self-Portrait'' (1977) is actually a painting within a painting, while Jean Dubuffet's offbeat ''Paul Leautaud in a Caned Chair'' (1942) was ''poking fun at the whole idea of portraiture, the vanity of portraiture,'' Warner said.

''Some said portraiture was bound to die out because people were expecting them to be good likenesses, and here were these artists not adhering to that,'' he said. ''But here, you can see the different twists that the artists put on it. Especially for the public, portraiture is engaging because you feel like you're in the presence of those on the canvas.''

Museum a Three Stooges

treasure-trove

SPRING HOUSE (AP)

Posing for a picture with life-size replicas of the Three Stooges, Gary Lassin smiled but didn't say ''cheese.''

''Woob-woob-woob-woob-woob!'' he trilled in a Curly-like falsetto before breaking into a grin.

The statues of Larry, Moe and Curly are near the entrance to the Stoogeum, home of Lassin's large and priceless collection of Stooges memorabilia.

The Stoogeum (think ''Stooges'' plus ''museum'') has about 3,500 items on display, from Stooges bowling balls and cereal boxes to Shemp Howard's army discharge, Larry Fine's driver's license and the flying submarine from ''The Three Stooges in Orbit.''

''This is as good as it gets,'' Lassin said.

Lassin, 52, opened the Stoogeum three years ago in a renovated architect's office that looks like a large house. It's a gold mine for fans of the old-time knucklehead movie and TV trio, but its off-the-beaten-path location in Spring House - about 40 kms north of Philadelphia - has made it a fairly well-kept secret.

''People sort of have to work to find me,'' Lassin said. ''I do want people to see it, but I want them to see it on my terms.''

Those terms include no photographs of the memorabilia, as he fears too much exposure will cheapen it. And admission is by appointment only because Lassin, who has a day job as an executive with a mail-order catalogue company, is the Stoogeum's sole employee.

The museum-quality exhibits occupy three stories totalling 929 sq.m, including an 85-seat theatre. Rooms are filled with movie props, posters, toys, artwork, figurines, scripts and even a video game, while TV screens replay all the eye-poking, pie-throwing and general mayhem that made the Stooges famous.

The act started out in vaudeville in the 1920s as support for comic Ted Healy. The first Stooges film, alongside Healy, was 1930's ''Soup to Nuts.'' The last one released was ''The Outlaws Is Coming,'' in 1965. Brothers Shemp and Moe Howard, and Fine were the earliest Stooges. Curley Howard then replaced brother Shemp for many years. Later Stooges included Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita.

The Stoogeum has ''more stuff than I even imagined existed,'' said Peter Seely, editor of the book ''Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges.'' ''Going through there is sort of like a trip through the history of pop culture in the 20th century.''

Yet, what visitors see is only a sampling of Lassin's estimated 100,000 items. His collection is both historical and personal, documenting the slapstick performers' indelible place in entertainment but also preserving a family legacy: Lassin's wife's grandfather, Morris Feinberg, was the brother of Stooge Larry (born Louis Feinberg).

Lassin was already a Stooges fan - ''Soitenly!'' he said - when he married into the family in 1981. He later became a sort of self-appointed guardian of Stooges keepsakes, which included items Morris Feinberg had received from his brother.

As the collection grew, Lassin kept it in countless drawers, boxes, notebooks and file cabinets above his garage. He opened the Stoogeum in 2004, self-financing it at an undisclosed cost; he called it part real-estate investment, part tax shelter, and part ''complete waste of money.''

It's likely the first museum of its kind, said Eric Lamond of California-based C3 Entertainment Inc., a production company created by the Stooges that still owns the brand.

''Gary's collection is enormous,'' said Lamond, who is also Fine's eldest grandchild. ''I would think that his is the largest.''

Lamond noted C3 Entertainment is considering building its own museum, but has no immediate plans to do so.

For now, fans have the Stoogeum. Lassin said about 2,500 people visit each year, many during the annual gathering of the Three Stooges Fan Club. Others seek out the place on their own, just because they have a soft spot for three goofballs they've loved since childhood.

Lassin recalled a couple from Richmond, Virginia, who recently trekked to the Stoogeum and afterward asked him offhandedly how to get to Philadelphia - they might as well see the Liberty Bell.

Eventually, said Lassin, the museum might have employees and regular business hours a few days a week. He would seem to be guaranteed a steady stream of visitors since the Stooges' zany antics, even though decades old, continue to win them admirers.

''Their comedy is timeless,'' said Seely, the editor. ''They were misfits wherever they were. ... You can plop them down in just about any time or place and they'll struggle with their environment. They could still do films today.''

For Lassin, their appeal is even easier to explain.

''They were funny. It's as simple as that,'' he said. ''Laughter makes you feel good.''

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!