Talking Art

TALKING ART

text STEFANOS EVRIPIDOU

photography LOUCA STUDIOS

There’s no escaping the alluring presence of art at the Four Seasons Hotel. With a personal interest in art and design, Executive Chairman Christos Mouskis chooses every piece placed in or around the hotel.

Whether it comes at you through the shimmering light of hanging glass leaves, the explosion of floral colour on canvas or the sounds from a copper tree fountain, one way or another, the art at the Four Seasons will find you. And when it does, it may or may not resonate. But in the event that a piece of art captures your attention, then there’s no putting a price on it, says Four Seasons Executive Chairman Christos Mouskis. “Art is a very personal thing,” he says. “It either talks to you or it doesn’t. Even when it does, you can’t always explain why or how.” Christos has been collecting art since the first day he opened the hotel in February 1993, and has no plans to stop.

ARTISTIC NAMESAKE

The hotel’s very first painting was the ‘Four Seasons’ by Andreas Charalambides, a large canvas depicting the changing seasons through four female figures. After more than two decades of exploring and purchasing art from various galleries, it remains a favourite, “because that’s where my heart is,” says Christos. The painting still decorates the hotel lobby, along with other treasured works purchased over the years.

A while back, the hotel hosted an exhibition of the artist Joseph Demiris (ΝΤΕΜΙΡΗΣ). The biggest painting in the collection was ‘Navarino 1827’, depicting the decisive naval

THE NEWLY CREATED GARDEN SUITES GALLERY features mainly Cyprus-based and Greek artists whose work is waiting to be admired.

victory of the British, French and Russians over the Ottoman fleet, which paved the way for Greek independence. “I walked into the Ballroom to view the exhibition, saw the Navarino and said, ‘Keep that for us’. It has great detail and depicts a historic moment for the Greek nation,” says Christos. The huge painting now hangs in the lobby for all to see. It’s a clear exception to the rule, as Christos leans more towards contemporary art.

Two years ago he walked into a gallery on New Bond Street in London. He looked around as he always does, walked down the staircase to the basement, glanced up at a painting and was blown away. “It took me 10 seconds to decide to buy it, no more.” The piece is a vibrant depiction of a bouquet of flowers by French artist Francois d’Izarny – a mesmerising explosion of colours that can also be found in the lobby.

EXCITING NEW EXHIBITION SPACE

The hotel has around 40 quality paintings displayed across its premises. Since 2016, most of them are concentrated in the newly created Garden Suites Gallery on the lower ground floor, where a winding corridor of canvas and colours opens into a bigger space, both part of the art gallery that is waiting to be admired.

The collection of modern paintings from mainly Cyprusbased and Greek artists includes distinctive pieces in plexiglass and stainless steel by Helen Black, reverberant paintings by the late colourist John Corbidge, as well as the work of Olivera Papathoma, who offers a ballroom dance with a lady in a beautiful red gown and seemingly elastic neck. Hazy jazz moods and the space between kisses are also explored.

Elsewhere, Thellos Petrides creates some bright and dreamy visuals with fish, shells, palm trees, nudes and flowers dressed in the pink, blue, red and black hues of changing seasons. Then there’s Constantinos Yiannicouris, one of the most acclaimed Cypriot artists, who studied at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts in Paris. His focus is on the ancient Greeks. The late Glyn Hughes, an acclaimed artist in his own right, described Yiannicouris’s use of colour and form as having a dazzling effect on large canvasses “as if butterflies have been freed.”

THE VALUE OF ART

Choosing what to buy is a personal matter. Christos explains: “Visiting an art gallery is not like going to a department store. You don’t walk in with a plan to buy something specific. But if you see something you like, it talks to you and becomes irresistible. It’s not always a rational decision. I might see harmony in a piece, or shapes that remind me of something… it’s a subconscious association with an earlier experience. Art extracts something from your soul, which you can’t easily describe. My wife often asks me why I like a particular piece, and I don’t know how to answer. It’s just beautiful… in a powerful, magnetic way that won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”