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| From Yorkshire to Cyprus, in search of the fork | From Yorkshire to Cyprus, in search of the fork |
| (5 months later) | |
| The magazine Private Eye has made the spoon famous, but what about our other everyday items of cutlery? | The magazine Private Eye has made the spoon famous, but what about our other everyday items of cutlery? |
| The knife has never been short of publicity, but the fork is a different matter. Some of us learned in history about Morton's Fork in the Tudor times, now made so excellently and widely available by Hilary Mantel and her two Booker prizes. There were also the Caudine Forks where the Romans came to grief, but they belonged to geography rather than the dinner table. | The knife has never been short of publicity, but the fork is a different matter. Some of us learned in history about Morton's Fork in the Tudor times, now made so excellently and widely available by Hilary Mantel and her two Booker prizes. There were also the Caudine Forks where the Romans came to grief, but they belonged to geography rather than the dinner table. |
| Now the art critic and lecturer Michael Paraskos is doing his bit for forks. A proud Yorkshireman, he emails the Northerner with this: | Now the art critic and lecturer Michael Paraskos is doing his bit for forks. A proud Yorkshireman, he emails the Northerner with this: |
| The organisation in Cyprus which I co-run with the Cyprus College of Art, called the Cornaro Institute, is teaming up with the University of Sheffield to offer a slightly off -the-wall cultural holiday for people who have ever asked the question, where did the fork come from? | The organisation in Cyprus which I co-run with the Cyprus College of Art, called the Cornaro Institute, is teaming up with the University of Sheffield to offer a slightly off -the-wall cultural holiday for people who have ever asked the question, where did the fork come from? |
| Odd I know, but the fork was introduced into Europe from Cyprus, when the island was ruled by the French - for 300 years from 1192 to 1489. The key figure was Peter I, King of Cyprus, who took forks with him to Poland whilst attending an early version of an EU Summit held in Cracow in 1364 called the Congress of Kings. From there they spread like wildfire across the continent, although apparently some Eurosceptics still clung on to the idea of eating only with a knife. | Odd I know, but the fork was introduced into Europe from Cyprus, when the island was ruled by the French - for 300 years from 1192 to 1489. The key figure was Peter I, King of Cyprus, who took forks with him to Poland whilst attending an early version of an EU Summit held in Cracow in 1364 called the Congress of Kings. From there they spread like wildfire across the continent, although apparently some Eurosceptics still clung on to the idea of eating only with a knife. |
| Do a lot of people know that? I didn't. Anyway, the fork element is part of a wider programme which Paraskos is encouraging in the tradition of his father Stass, one of Cyprus best-regarded modern artists and a central figure in a famous arts episode in Leeds. Arriving here from his native Cyprus to cook in his brother's restaurant in 1953, he went along to art classes where his talent was spotted by Harry Thubron, then head of Leeds College of Art. | Do a lot of people know that? I didn't. Anyway, the fork element is part of a wider programme which Paraskos is encouraging in the tradition of his father Stass, one of Cyprus best-regarded modern artists and a central figure in a famous arts episode in Leeds. Arriving here from his native Cyprus to cook in his brother's restaurant in 1953, he went along to art classes where his talent was spotted by Harry Thubron, then head of Leeds College of Art. |
| Thurbon was brilliant at this and many owe him a debt of thanks. Paraskos later became a teacher at the college himself and it was then that he made national headlines when some of his paintings in a public exhibition were considered to be 'lewd and obscene' according to the terms of the Vagrancy Act. The case in 1966 was a sort of halfway point between the Lady Chatterley trial and the Oz prosecution and significant in the gradual liberalisation of the UK's obscenity laws. Paraskos attracted many eminent supporters including Yorkshire's Sir Herbert Read whose son Ben now teaches at Leeds university. But he was convicted and fined £5. | Thurbon was brilliant at this and many owe him a debt of thanks. Paraskos later became a teacher at the college himself and it was then that he made national headlines when some of his paintings in a public exhibition were considered to be 'lewd and obscene' according to the terms of the Vagrancy Act. The case in 1966 was a sort of halfway point between the Lady Chatterley trial and the Oz prosecution and significant in the gradual liberalisation of the UK's obscenity laws. Paraskos attracted many eminent supporters including Yorkshire's Sir Herbert Read whose son Ben now teaches at Leeds university. But he was convicted and fined £5. |
| That didn't do his artistic career any harm. Quite the contrary. As Michael Paraskos says: | That didn't do his artistic career any harm. Quite the contrary. As Michael Paraskos says: |
| It is common knowledge that the idea for the Cyprus College of Art was born in a slightly drunken gathering at the Fenton pub on Woodhouse Lane in 1968. | It is common knowledge that the idea for the Cyprus College of Art was born in a slightly drunken gathering at the Fenton pub on Woodhouse Lane in 1968. |
| The fork expedition, organised with Sheffield university, the University of Cyprus, Larnaca city council and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation which is working to widen the island's appeal for cultural holidays. Travellers will also look at the wider world of Mediaeval and Renaissance Cyprus, centring on the story of Othello as well as the fork. More details from the Cornaro Institute here. | The fork expedition, organised with Sheffield university, the University of Cyprus, Larnaca city council and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation which is working to widen the island's appeal for cultural holidays. Travellers will also look at the wider world of Mediaeval and Renaissance Cyprus, centring on the story of Othello as well as the fork. More details from the Cornaro Institute here. |
| Here is a brief but enjoyable chat with Stass, on a brief YouTube clip, made at the idiosyncratic buildings of the Cyprus College of Art. | Here is a brief but enjoyable chat with Stass, on a brief YouTube clip, made at the idiosyncratic buildings of the Cyprus College of Art. |
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