Pavement Art (Toddler Crushers)
By Glyn Hughes

Once upon a time there was Pavement Art. For example, there was the Borough Group’s contribution to the first London County Council open-air art exhibition, held at Embankment Gardens in London in July 1948.

David Bomberg was very much part of this. Bomberg, as you all know, painted the northern range of Cyprus that same summer.

He would be horrified at what has happened to this country, for example to the pavements.

The pavements of Nicosia have become toddler crushers.

Try walking on one and very soon a mirror, or a wheel from a "MOVING" car (which should not be there at all ) will brush against your side or foot, either going forward or reversing.

Glance into the car and the murderous driver may be putting on lipstick (probably), emotionally and physically involved in a mobile phone (certainly), eating a sandwich (greedily), and not in the least aware that the area is for pedestrians and couldn’t care less about your life, OR DEATH.

On the Couch

An exhibition of cartoons from The New Yorker on the subject of psychoanalysis "On the Couch" opens on Thursday, January 10 at Castelliotissa Hall in Nicosia.

The programme also includes a piano recital by Isabel Ettenauer with her project "The Joy of Toy" at 7.00 pm.

The exhibition will be opened at 8.00 pm by Minister of Education and Culture Akis Kleanthous and the ambassador of Austria Dr Eva Hager.

This exhibition has been commissioned by the Austrian Foreign Ministry for the 2006 commemorative year of Sigmund Freud’s birthday 150 years ago.

The exhibition shows in a turnaround fashion what jokes about psychoanalysis can look like by drawing from the cartoon vault of The New Yorker, a magazine famous for its high cultural and aesthetic standards, including cartoon art.

Isabel Ettenaur is an exceptional musical personality with a notable artistic profile – she captures her audiences’ hearts, both as a pianist and as a world leading toy piano virtuoso For the project THE JOY OF TOY, in which she plays new music on toy pianos she has been awarded the Pasticciopreis of the Austrian public Radio Osterreich 1.

Since the start of her career, Isabel has been a regular guest at international festivals and concert halls throughout Europe and the USA.

A second concert Piano Games, on piano and toy piano by Isabel Ettenauer will take place at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol on Friday, January 11 at 8.00 pm.

The World of Women

Aspelia Gallery, Larnaca missed the boat last week.

The gallery has a group exhibition which opened last Friday but continues until January 26.

A percentage of the sales will be donated to "Europa Donna Cyprus" (Cyprus Breast Cancer Forum).

Olga Spanou

Opening Sunday, December 30, at Gloria Gallery and continuing until January 13.

Here is an outstandingly fine artist who was born in Prague 1955, studied at the Fine Arts Academy there and had lived and worked in Dhali since 1983.

She is also Mrs Leonidas Spanos.

This is Olga’s ninth solo exhibition and she says that she expresses her own reality in the form of a dialogue with colours and other media. The surfaces of her canvases are drenched with meaning.

It will be a great show.

Mum uses online gallery to exhibit and sell 2-year-old son's paintings

LONDON (AP)

As is often the case with modern art, it's been said that Freddie Linsky's paintings look like they could have been created by a two-year old.

But in Freddie's case, he actually is just two.

His works aren't just hanging on the refrigerator, though.

Freddie's mother, Estelle Lovatt, posted her son's paintings on an art gallery Web site that lets anyone exhibit and sell their works online. As an art critic and art teacher, she said she thought they were above average and wanted to see what others thought.

She said Freddie sold his first painting last year and a gallery in Berlin expressed interest - though she won't reveal its name. Neither the buyer nor the gallery knew Freddie's age.

British newspapers caught on to Freddie's talent earlier this week, a year after his mother said she sold his painting.

Freddie's profile on the gallery's site doesn't state his age, saying only that "the artist's whole life has been dedicated to his art" and that he is an art critic and a familiar face at press viewings at major galleries and exhibitions in London.

Ketchup

Both of those facts are true, Lovatt said, just not exactly as they seem. Lovatt is an art critic, freelance radio journalist and part-time teacher at an art school and has taken Freddie with her to galleries and exhibitions. He has indeed been painting almost his entire life - starting with ketchup on his high chair tray.

The gallery, Saatchi Online, is open to artists anywhere.

The site is free and does not charge a commission.

The gallery generates έ68m in sales per year and receives more 50 million hits per day, said Annabel Fallon, a spokeswoman for the gallery. She said Freddie was probably the youngest of the 75,000 artists displayed on the site.

Lovatt said her reason for posting Freddie's paintings was simple: she thought her son was talented and wanted to see what others thought.

"I'm an art critic and I'm looking at one or two finished pieces, and I noticed that some of them actually looked quite good and I thought, 'Am I just being a biased mother or is there something there?"' she said.

She said she had fun embellishing the captions for paintings and expected people to see through what she wrote.

The painting that sold for Θ20, "The Best Loved Elephant," says: "The striking use of Oriental calligraphy has the kanji like characters stampeding from the page, showing the new ascent of the East. One of the artist's most experimental works." But the intent was not to trick anyone, she said.

"Nobody was duped," she said. "The purchaser bought it for Θ20p. That's cheaper than a poster and it amounts to costs of his paints." She added that she didn't think Freddie's age was relevant.

"I thought people might not look at it as a piece of potential art, but look at it as children's art," she said. "With abstract art, most people turn and say 'Oh my child could do that.' In this case he has."