ECONOMOU Costas

Cypriot, 1925-2016
Costas Economou

Costas Economou was born in Kissonerga village of Paphos in 1925.

He graduated form the Teacher’s College Morphou in 1945. He attended art and pedagogic classes at Kings Alfred’s College in Winchester for two years (1956-1957) and from 1971 to1972 he continued his studies at the Institute of Education in London. In parallel to his studies at the Institute of Education, he attended evening painting lessons at St. Martin’s School of Art. He worked as a teacher, professor and inspector of Art from 1945 to 1985.

His one-man exhibitions took place: in 1962 at the Municipal Hall in Paphos; in 1963 at Apophasis Gallery and Zygos Gallery in Nicosia; in 1981 at Kochlias Gallery in Nicosia; in 1985 and 1990 at Gloria Gallery in Nicosia; in 1988 at Ora Gallery in Nicosia; in 1989 at Rogme Gallery in Limassol; in1991 at Kyklos Gallery in Paphos and at Apocalypse Gallery in Nicosia.

He participated in many group exhibitions: at the Panhellenic Exhibitions of 1965 and 1971; in 1974 at the exhibition “Cyprus, the Sun-kissed Island of Aphrodite” in Hamburg; in 1978 at “The National Leader Makarios and the Struggles of the Cypriot People” exhibition in Nicosia; at the “Cypriot Engraving” exhibition in 1978 in Bulgaria, in 1981 in India and in 1984 in Cuba, in 1980-1981 at the touring exhibition “Contemporary Cypriot Art” in Hungary, Rumania, former Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia; in 1983 at a Contemporary Cypriot Art exhibition in Paris; in 1985 at the “25 Years of Cypriot Art” exhibition in Nicosia; in 1987 at the “Four Painters form Paphos” exhibition in Sofia, and the same year at the “Exhibition of Cypriot Artists”, a collection of the Popular Bank, in Athens and Mytilini, in 1990 at the “Contemporary Cypriot Art” exhibition in Kuwait, in 1995 at the “Cyprus Contemporary Art, An Itinerary” in Nicosia and at the 25th Exhibition of International Plein Air in Smolyan in Bulgaria.

Costas Economou has also written articles on art themes in magazines and newspapers. Finally, he has written an analysis of the work of Christophoros Savva, which was published by the Cultural Services in Nicosia in 1988.

His work can be seen at the State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art, the Paphos Municipality, the Corfu Municipality, the Smolyan Gallery of Bulgaria, the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation, at several Banks and private collections in Cyprus, Greece, England, Germany, Austria, Holland, Finland, Italy, and U.S.A etc.

Bibliography: “The Great Cypriot Encyclopedia”, Philokypros publications, Nicosia 1988 – “Cypriot Artists”, Chr. Andreou publications, Nicosia 1982-83 – Chrysanthos Christou, “Short History of Modern and Contemporary Cypriot Art”, Nicosia 1983 – Eleni Papademetriou, “State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art”, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cultural Services, Nicosia 2002.