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{{Short description|British art historian (born 1969)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
]
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1969
| birth_place = Leeds, Yorkshire
| nationality = Cypriot, British
| period = Contemporary
| occupation = Novelist, lecturer, art critic
| alma_mater = Frank Montgomery Secondary Modern School, Canterbury College of Technology, University of Leeds (B.A. and MRes.), and University of Nottingham (Phd.)
| spouse =
| children =
| genre = ], ], ]
| notableworks =
| website = {{URL|www.michaelparaskos.com}}
}}


'''Michael Paraskos,''' ] (born 1969, ], Yorkshire) is a novelist, lecturer and writer on art, and is the son of the Cypriot artist ]. As well as reviewing exhibitions for BBC Radio 4, he has written several non-fiction and fiction books and essays, and articles on art, literature, culture and politics for various publications including ''],'' '']'' and '']'' magazine. He has taught in universities and colleges and curated several exhibitions. He is one of the world's leading authorities on the British modernist art critic ], and he is also known for his wider theories connecting ] and ].<ref>http://www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/documents/ASN%202.0%20FINAL%20Programme.pdf</ref> He lives in ] in south ]. '''Michael Paraskos''', ], ] (born 1969) is a novelist, lecturer and writer on art. He has written several non-fiction and fiction books and essays, and in the past contributed articles on art, literature, culture and politics to various publications, including '']'', '']'', '']'' newspaper and '']'' magazine. Previously, he has also reviewed art exhibitions for BBC radio, and he has curated art exhibitions, and taught in universities and colleges in Britain and elsewhere. He has a particular focus on modern art, having published books on the art theorist ], and he is also known for his theories connecting ] and ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/documents/ASN%202.0%20FINAL%20Programme.pdf |title=Anarchist Studies Network Conference 2.0 'Making Connections' |website=Anarchist-studies-network.org.uk |access-date=2017-01-18}}
</ref> He lives in ] in south ].


==Education and employment== ==Education and employment==
Paraskos was born in ], ], the youngest of five children, to Cypriot parents.


As a child, his family moved to ], where Paraskos attended a ] in ]<ref>{{cite news |author= Panayides, Theo |title=Sensitive, creative, heart on sleeve |newspaper=The Cyprus Mail |location=Nicosia |date=8 April 2016 |url= http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/04/08/sensitive-creative-heart-on-sleeve/?hlst=Paraskos}}</ref> Paraskos claimed in '']'' that those who attend secondary modern schools "are condemned to a lifetime of social exclusion and crippling self-doubt".<ref>{{cite news |title= Letters |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=20 October 2015 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/20/grammar-schools-and-the-feeling-of-failure}}</ref>
After leaving school aged 16 Paraskos became a trainee butcher at a ] supermarket, but after six months of handling fresh meat left, becoming a lifelong vegetarian in the process, to return to formal education. He went on to attend the ] and ], studying at Nottingham with ] to gain his doctorate on the aesthetic theories of ] in 2005. In 1991 he established with ] the New Leeds Arts Club, an art society in ] based on the original ] (1903–1923), and became a committee member of the ]. After teaching at various colleges and universities, and for the ], Paraskos became head of Art History for Fine Art at the ] from 1994 to 2000.


After leaving school at the age of 16, Paraskos became an apprentice butcher at a ] supermarket.<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''In Search of Sixpence'' (London: Friction Press, 2016) p. 220</ref> After becoming a ], he left butchery and enrolled in evening classes at ] to study for university entrance examinations. After this, he went on to attend the ] and ], studying at Leeds under the novelist ], and at Nottingham with the art historian ]. At Nottingham University, he gained his doctorate in 2015 on the ] of the anarchist poet and art theorist ].
In 2000 he became Director of the Cornaro Institute in Larnaca, Cyprus, part of the ]. There he oversaw the first accreditation of various art education programmes at the Institute, and helped to create a significant arts, education and cultural centre in ]. However, following the ] in 2013 the Cornaro Institute was no longer financially viable and it closed in May 2014, resulting in Paraskos refocusing his work on his activities in London.


After teaching as a visiting part-time lecturer at various colleges and universities, and for the ] from 1992 onwards, Paraskos was made head of Art History for Fine Art at the ] from 1994 to 2000. In 2000, he went to work in Cyprus as Director of the Cornaro Art Institute in Larnaca, Cyprus, and also taught in Cyprus at the ].<ref>Michael Paraskos (ed.), ''Re-reading Read: New Views on Herbert Read'' (London: Freedom Press, 2007), p. 219.</ref>
In London Paraskos works as a writer and lecturer. He was art correspondent for the London edition of the '']'' newspaper until March 2012 when he stopped writing for the newspaper in protest at its new policy of only covering "traditional art".<ref></ref> He has also appeared on the ] programme ] as a reviewer of art exhibitions. He was ] Fellow in Sculpture Studies at the ] in 2007–08. In 2009 he was asked to join the judging panel for the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture, an annual award organised by the ] (PMSA) for the best public sculpture of the year in Britain or Ireland. He is due to leave the Marsh panel in 2016. He was previously also Research Fellow for ]. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2011. In 2014 he became a Programme Officer in the Department of Archaeology and Art History at ], and he also lectures on art history at ], ] and ].


After returning to Britain in 2014, he worked at ] until 2017, whilst also working as a lecturer at the ]. Still teaching at the City and Guilds of London Art School, he is now a Senior Teaching Fellow and head of adult education at ]’s Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication.<ref>{{cite journal|title='Notes on Contributors'|journal=Journal of Women's Studies|volume=44|date=2015|issn=0049-7878|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.paraskos}}</ref>
His first fiction work, a novel entitled ''In Search of Sixpence,'' will be published in 2016.{{cn}}


As a freelance ] and ], he has worked for '']'' magazine, and the London edition of the '']'' newspaper. He has also reviewed art exhibitions for ]'s '']'' programme, and ] Television in Sweden, and appeared on ]'s political and cultural magazine programme, ''Rear Window'', produced for ], as well as on various radio programmes for the ].
==Artistic theory==


As a writer, he has published fiction and non-fiction extensively. His first fiction work, a novel entitled ''In Search of Sixpence'', was published in 2016.<ref>{{cite book|title=In Search of Sixpence |author=Michael Paraskos |isbn=9780992924782 |via=Amazon.co.uk |year=2016 |publisher=Orage Press |id= {{ASIN|0992924782|country=uk}} }}</ref>
Paraskos's theory of art is based on a belief that the starting point for art lies in an artist's physical engagement with the world. In this the artwork is seen as an aesthetic object, rather than the illustration of an idea, and this stance has resulted in several skirmishes with proponents of ]. Indeed, Paraskos's critical stance is often aggressively opposed to Conceptualism, particularly in his newspaper reviews. Working with the artist ], Paraskos has given his approach the name ''The New Aesthetics.''<ref>See ''The Table Top Schools of Art'' (London: Orage Press, 2009), ''passim''</ref>


==Anarchist art theory==
Speaking to students of ] (University of London) in December 2009 Paraskos argued that conceptualism in its present form lacked the intellectual and political rigour of conceptualism in the 1970s and should instead be called 'concept illustration'. The problem with concept illustration, he suggested, is that it shows a 'lack of faith in art' as a sensual, or aesthetic, medium, particularly as a visual medium, and because of that lack of faith many artists and critics try to make art act like other human activities. He illustrated this by suggesting that because artists lacked faith in art as a visual medium they try to turn it into visual politics, or visual sociology, or visual philosophy. For Paraskos, however, art is particularly bad at conveying the type of specific messages demanded by politics, sociology or philosophy, resulting in bad art and bad politics, sociology and philosophy. This inability of visual art to convey such specific messages is why so many art exhibitions are accompanied by large amounts of text explaining what the art is about.<ref>A summary of this was published as 'The Death of Conceptualism', in ''The Epoch Times,'' 16 December 2009.</ref>
Although he has never formally declared himself to be an anarchist, preferring instead the term ] or ],<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (London: Orage Press, 2015) p.8</ref> Paraskos's work has intellectual connections to anarchist ideas, and he has personal connections with anarchist circles.


In 2006, Paraskos wrote an article for the Cypriot art newspaper ''ArtCyprus'' entitled 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist' in which he used the theories of ] to argue that art creates new realities by destroying old ones.<ref>Michael Paraskos, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist', in ''ArtCyprus,'' No. 1, Spring 2006, p.3</ref> Although de Sanctis was not an anarchist, in Paraskos this statement, equating the creation of a new reality through the artistic destruction of an old one, seems to have sparked a particular interest in the relationship between anarchism and art. This was further developed in 2007 when Paraskos published an essay on his father, the artist ] and the painter ], in which he argued that their series of collaborative paintings, begun when both artists had reached their 70s, represented a kind of "anarchist commune" on the canvas. Notably, Paraskos ended this essay, written in Greek and English, with the slogan "Ζήτω η αναρχική επανάσταση!", or "Long live the anarchist revolution!"<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί'' (Nicosia: Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007)</ref>
Instead of this, Paraskos suggested that a new aesthetics of art is needed to understand and explain art as an aesthetic form, rather than as a semiotic or narrative form. In this Paraskos takes the word aesthetics back to its origins in Greek, arguing that it meant 'to feel or experience through the senses'. This, he has claimed, makes aesthetics not an issue of beauty or one of how viewers respond to works of art, but a question of the sensual and material aspects of how artists make art. Taking his cue from the theories of ], for Paraskos art becomes a material manifestation of the physical engagement between the artist and the world around them (called by Paraskos 'actuality').<ref>See Michael Paraskos, ''The Table Top Schools of Art'' (London: Orage Press, 2008) 11f</ref>


Paraskos's first novel, ''In Search of Sixpence'', was described by the critic Paul Cudenec as an example of anarchist literature, with its "dizzying hall of mirrors, where reflected moments bounce around in a loop and end up staring each other in the face." This is an anarchist approach to literature, according to Cudenec, even if the subject matter might not seem overtly anarchist.<ref>Paul Cudenec, ''Anarchism, art, time and reality'' in Network 23, online publication, 16 December 2021, https://network23.org/paulcudenec/2015/12/16/anarchism-art-time-and-reality/</ref>
Although this can be compared to the ] of earlier writers such as ] and ], Paraskos is clear that formalism is insufficient in itself to justify art's existence. Writing on the realist painter Clive Head, Paraskos suggests that the material engagement with actuality by the artist results in an art work when a transformation takes place, by which he means the artwork is no longer a material object in actuality but a material object that creates its own world. This is most easily explained in terms of a painting, which Paraskos does not see as a picture in actuality, but as a window on to another reality fabricated by the artist. In Paraskos's theory, the reality of the painting is as real as our reality, it simply operates to a different set of parameters. Paraskos is clear that this theory owes a debt to theories in the ] relating to ], where an image of a saint or of Christ is not seen as a picture of the saint or Christ, but as a window into heaven where you can see the saint or Christ. Paraskos has effectively stripped the concept of its explicitly religious connotations and argues that all art works in this way, and he even uses an Orthodox religious term to describe the transformation of the physical into the metaphysical, calling it ''Metastoicheiosis,'' with correlates in the ] to ]. Only when this transformation takes place does the aesthetic experience become a work of art.<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''Clive Head'' (London: Lund Humphries) 9f and ''passim''</ref>

While this theory seems to work well with paintings, which can resemble windows, in recent writings Paraskos has begun to try to establish a similar principle for three-dimensional art, particularly sculpture, by suggesting that even sculpture exists in its own reality. This means that whilst a three-dimensional sculpture might sit in our world, it exists within what Paraskos calls a 'bubble of space' of its own. This he describes as being like a three-dimensional picture plane surrounding the sculpture and excluding the viewer.<ref>Michael Paraskos, 'Bubbles in Space', in ''The Epoch Times,'' 3 May 2010.</ref>

This approach has been linked by the Italian writer Pierluigi Sacco, writing in ''Flash Art'' magazine to what Sacco calls the transition from 'Culture 2.0' to 'Culture 3.0' in which 'collaborative platforms open, the wave of innovation creates powerful new modes of production and distribution of content outside of the radius of share of the market.' In this context, Sacco suggests, Paraskos's writings represent a new kind of avant-gardism. In this Sacco singles out the uncompromising opposition of Paraskos to mainstream ] art with its insistence on the primacy of the everyday world, which is set against Paraskos's desire for art to fabricate its own world, or rather its own existence independent from the everyday world even if that means terrorising the existing art world.<ref>Pierluigi Sacco, 'Money for Nothing', in ''Flash Art (Italia),'' June 2012.</ref>

==Anarchism==

Although he has never formally declared himself to be an anarchist, preferring instead the term ] or ]<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (London: Orage Press, 2015) p.8</ref> Paraskos's work has intellectual connections to anarchist ideas, and he has personal connections with anarchist circles.

In 2006 Paraskos wrote an article for the Cypriot art newspaper ''ArtCyprus'' entitled 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist' in which he used the theories of ] to argue that art creates new realities by destroying old ones.<ref>Michael Paraskos, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist', in ''ArtCyprus,'' No. 1, Spring 2006, p.3</ref> Although de Sanctis was not an anarchist, in Paraskos this statement, equating the creation of a new reality through the artistic destruction of an old one, seems to have sparked a particular interest in the relationship between anarchism and art. This was further developed in 2007 when Paraskos published an essay on his father, the artist ] and the painter ], in which he argued that their series of collaborative paintings, begun when both artists had reached their 70s, represented a kind of 'anarchist commune' on the canvas. Notably Paraskos ended this essay, written in Greek and English, with the slogan, 'Ζήτω η αναρχική επανάσταση!' or 'Long live the anarchist revolution!'<ref>Michael Paraskos''The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί'' (Nicosia: Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007)</ref>

In 2008 Paraskos also edited a book of essays on the British anarchist art theorist ] for the anarchist publishing house the ], and he has spoken at anarchist studies conferences in the UK. As this suggests, Paraskos's route into anarchism might have its origins in his earlier academic studies into ], but in Paraskos's own work this interest has evolved into a theory of art in which a direct parallel is made between the anarchist desire to free the individual from society and what Paraskos claims is the artists' desire to be free from existing culture.

In effect Paraskos argues that a key strand of anarchist theory is that it is differentiated from other radical political doctrines in the way it rejects all forms of social or cultural conditioning. According to Paraskos, in the same way political anarchism tries to liberate the individual from the state, so art seeks to liberate the individual from culture. In this theory, culture is seen as something imposed on people, undermining their individuality, whereas art is an expression of that individuality emerging from a direct engagement by a particular person at a particular time with the world as a physical and material entity.

Consequently for Paraskos the notion of artistic transcendence which seems to underpin his earlier understanding of art is also a transcendence of culture, in the same way that a political anarchist seeks to transcend imposed society, or the state. Indeed, speaking at the Anarchist Studies Conference at the ] in September 2012 Paraskos described culture as a form of the state. Using an analogy of society and culture being like a bus he argued that whilst most political doctrines, including ], only want to change the driver of the bus, only anarchism wants to help the passengers to get off the bus.<ref>Michael Paraskos, 'What would an anarchist Rembrandt look like', paper delivered to the Anarchist Studies Network Conference, University of Loughborough, September 2012, reproduced in English and Turkish translation in ''Sanat Dunyamiz'' (Turkish art magazine) no. 131, 2012, p.22f</ref> This new development in what has been called the ], is also evident in the writings of Paraskos's long term collaborator, the artist ], who has begun to write of art's ability to "terrorise culture".<ref>Clive Head, ''From Victoria to Arcadia'' (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 2012)</ref> Its most recent expression by Paraskos was in an article for the British art magazine ''The Jackdaw'', entitled 'Anarchy in the UK' in 2013.<ref>Michael Paraskos, 'Anarchy in the UK', in ''The Jackdaw'' January/February 2013, also online at </ref>


==Fiction and non-fiction books== ==Fiction and non-fiction books==
Michael Paraskos is the author of a number of non-fiction books on art. These include ''Herbert Read: Art and Idealism'' (2014) in which he explores the ideas of the British anarchist art theorist Herbert Read and ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (2015), a collection of four lectures turned into essays. He has also written ] on the British artists ] (2007) and ] (2010). He has edited books by and on Herbert Read and other subjects, and is the author of one work of fiction, ''In Search of Sixpence'' (2016). This book is a semi-fictionalised account of the life and death of Paraskos's father, Stass Paraskos, who died in 2014, but it is combined with a ] detective story and other elements. Real life figures are also woven into the book, including ] and ]. These elements, which undermine the division between fiction and non-fiction writing, form what Paraskos has described as a kind of disruptive anarchist literature, although the subject matter of the book is not overtly concerned with political anarchism.


A feature of both Paraskos's fiction and non-fiction writing is the place of the author in the writing. This is clear in the personal elements of his novel, ''In Search of Sixpence'', where Paraskos is a character in his own novel, but in his non-fiction writings on Herbert Read, Steve Whitehead and Clive Head Paraskos also frequently refers to himself and uses personal anecdotes that have the effect of personalising the texts and rooting them in Paraskos's own experiences. His second novel, called ''Barfrestone'' was published in February 2024.
Michael Paraskos is the author of a number of non-fiction books on art. These include ''Herbert Read: Art and Idealism'' (2014) in which he explores the ideas of the British anarchist art theorist ] and ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (2015), a collection of four lectures turned into essays. He has also written monographs on the British artists Steve Whitehead (2007) and Clive Head (2010). He has edited books by and on Herbert Read and other subjects, and is the author of one work of fiction, ''In Search of Sixpence'' (2016). This book is a semi-fictionlised account of the life and death of Paraskos's father, ], who died in 2014, but it is combined with a ] detective story and other elements. Real life figures are also woven into the book, including ] and ]. These elements, which undermine the division between fiction and non-fiction writing, form what Paraskos has described as a kind of disruptive anarchist literature, although the subject matter of the book is not overtly concerned with political anarchism.


==Cocktails==
A feature of both Paraskos's fiction and non-fiction writing is the place of the author in the writing. This is clear in the personal elements of his novel, ''In Search of Sixpence,'' where Paraskos is a character in his own novel, but in his non-fiction writings on Herbert Read, Steve Whitehead and Clive Head Paraskos also frequently refers to himself and uses personal anecdotes that have the effect of personalising the texts and rooting them in Paraskos's own experiences.
In 2015, responding to a call by the government-run ] for ideas to promote Cypriot food and drinks to foreign visitors to Cyprus, Paraskos suggested a new cocktail using only Cypriot ingredients, called the ]. This was picked up by local media,<ref>Michael Paraskos (19 April 2015). "A perfect sundowner to replace the tired old brandy sour". The Cyprus Mail.</ref><ref>Masha Salko, "Ouzini", 30 April, 2015, ''Moi Ostrov'',</ref> and promoted by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Meet Ouzini, the all Cypriot cocktail! |publisher=Cyprus Tourism Organisation |date=2015 |url=http://www.visitcyprus.biz/wps/portal/b2b/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3hXN0fHYE8TIwN_I0tTA6MgbzNHcxNLIwNnA_1wkA6zeAMcwNEAIg83wcLP3MnAyDLI0DjI3MPIwtxA388jPzdVvyA7O83RUVERAGzSDkA!/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfRUZBQVNJNDIwT05GNDAyVFVQMjk5VjMwNjY!/?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/B2B_English__en/B2B/Generic/Meet_ouzini_the_all_Cypriot_cocktail |access-date=17 September 2019 }}</ref> Following a suggestion by the Cypriot journalist Lucy Robson that the problem with the ouzini was that it lacked a compelling story,<ref>Lucie Robson, "A good story will be the Ouzini's strongest ingredient", in ''The Cyprus Weekly'' (Cyprus newspaper), 1 May 2015</ref> Paraskos included the ouzini in his 2016 novel ''In Search of Sixpence''.<ref>Michael Paraskos, ''In Search of Sixpence,'' (London: Friction Fiction, 2016), p. 384.</ref>


==Lists of publications== ==Lists of publications==

=== Books by Michael Paraskos === === Books by Michael Paraskos ===

* ''The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί'' (Nicosia: Εν Τύποις, Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007) * ''The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί'' (Nicosia: Εν Τύποις, Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007)
* ''Steve Whitehead'' (London: Orage Press, 2007) * ''Steve Whitehead'' (London: Orage Press, 2007)
* ''Re-Reading Read: New Views on ]'' (London: Freedom Press, 2007) * ''Re-Reading Read: New Views on ]'' (London: ], 2007)
* ''The Aphorisms of Irsee'' ]]) (London: Orage Press, 2008) * ''The Aphorisms of Irsee'' ]]) (London: Orage Press, 2008)
* ''The Table Top Schools of Art'' (London: Orage Press, 2008) * ''The Table Top Schools of Art'' (London: Orage Press, 2008)
* ''Is Your Artwork Really Necessary?'' (London: Orage Press, 2008) * ''Is Your Artwork Really Necessary?'' (London: Orage Press, 2008)
* ''Clive Head'' (London: Lund Humphries, 2010) * ''Clive Head'' (London: ], 2010)
* ''Regeneration'' (London: Orage Press, 2010) * ''Regeneration'' (London: Orage Press, 2010)
* ''Herbert Read: Art and Idealism'' (London: Orage Press, 2014) * ''Herbert Read: Art and Idealism'' (London: Orage Press, 2014)
* ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (London: Orage Press, 2015) * ''Four Essays on Art and Anarchism'' (London: Orage Press, 2015)
* ''In Search of Sixpence'' (London: Friction Fiction, 2016) * ''In Search of Sixpence'' (London: Friction Fiction, 2016)
* ''Barfrestone'' (London: Orage Press, 2024)


=== Books including chapters by Michael Paraskos === === Books including chapters by Michael Paraskos ===
* New introduction to Herbert Read, ''To Hell with Culture'' (London, ] 2002)

* New introduction to Herbert Read, ''To Hell with Culture'' (London, Routledge 2002)
* 'Herbert Read' in Chris Murray (ed.), ''Key Thinkers on Art'' (London, Routledge, 2002) * 'Herbert Read' in Chris Murray (ed.), ''Key Thinkers on Art'' (London, Routledge, 2002)
* New introduction to Herbert Read, ''Naked Warriors'' (London, Imperial War Museum Publications, 2003) * New introduction to Herbert Read, ''Naked Warriors'' (London, ] Publications, 2003)
* Various entries for Antonia Bostrom (ed.), ''The Encyclopaedia of Sculpture'' (London, Routledge, 2003) * Various entries for ] (ed.), ''The Encyclopaedia of Sculpture'' (London, Routledge, 2003)
* 'The Prick of Conscience Leatherette Sofa', in Pippa Hale (ed.), ''Pipa Hale at the Patrick Studios, Leeds'' (Leeds: ESA, 2005) * "The Prick of Conscience Leatherette Sofa", in Pippa Hale (ed.), ''Pipa Hale at the Patrick Studios, Leeds'' (Leeds: ESA, 2005)
* 'The Curse of King Bomba: Or How Marxism Stole Modernism,' in Hana Babayradova and Jiri Havilcek (eds.), ''Spiritualita'' (Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2006) * "The Curse of King Bomba: Or How Marxism Stole Modernism", in Hana Babayradova and Jiri Havilcek (eds.), ''Spiritualita'' (Brno: ] Press, 2006)
* 'Herbert Read and ]', in Paul Skinner (ed.) ''International Ford Madox Ford Studies'' vol. 6 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007) * "Herbert Read and ]", in Paul Skinner (ed.) ''International Ford Madox Ford Studies'' vol. 6 (Amsterdam: ], 2007)
* 'ME THN EYKAIPIA', in Ludmila Fidlerova and Barbora Svatkova (eds.), ''Mimochodem (By the Way),'' (Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2009) * "ME THN EYKAIPIA", in Ludmila Fidlerova and Barbora Svatkova (eds.), ''Mimochodem (By the Way),'' (Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2009)
* Various entries for ] (ed.), ''The Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851'' (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009) * Various entries in ] (ed.), '']'' (New Haven, ], 2009)
* 'Bringing into being: vivifying sculpture through touch' in Peter Dent (ed.) ''Sculpture and Touch'' (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014) * "Bringing into being: vivifying sculpture through touch", in Peter Dent (ed.) ''Sculpture and Touch'' (Farnham: ], 2014)
* 'Tea-trays and longing: Mapping Giorgione’s ''Sleeping Venus'' onto Cyprus' in Michael Paraskos (ed) ''Othello's Island'' (Mitcham: Orage Press, 2019)
*


=== Reviews and discussion of work by Michael Paraskos === === Reviews and discussion of work by Michael Paraskos ===
* James Ker-Lindsay, Hubert Faustmann, ''The Government and Politics of Cyprus'' (New York: ], 2008) p.&nbsp;40, n.19

* Carissa Honeywell, ''A British Anarchist Tradition: Herbert Read, ] and Colin Ward'' (London: ], 2011) p.&nbsp;49f
* James Ker-Lindsay, Hubert Faustmann, ''The Government and Politics of Cyprus'' (New York: Peter Lang, 2008) p.40, n.19
* Carissa Honeywell, ''A British Anarchist Tradition: Herbert Read, Alex Comfort and Colin Ward'' (London: Continuum Publishing, 2011) p. 49f * ], '']'' (London: ], 2012) p.&nbsp;350f
* Pierluigi Sacco, review of ''Is Your Artwork Really Necessary?'' in '']'' (Italian magazine), no. 303, June 2012
* David Goodway, ''Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow'' (London: PM Press, 2012) p. 350f
* Jordi Costa, "La ficción en tiempos de inmediatez", in '']'' (Spanish newspaper), 28 August 2017
* Pierluigi Sacco, review of ''Is Your Artwork Really Necessary?'' in '']'' (Italian art magazine), no. 303, June 2012


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

<references />


==External links== ==External links==
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===Interviews with Michael Paraskos===
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{{Authority control}} {{Authority control}}

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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = British art historian
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1969
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paraskos, Michael}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Paraskos, Michael}}
] ]
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Latest revision as of 15:29, 1 January 2025

British art historian (born 1969)

Michael Paraskos
Born1969
Leeds, Yorkshire
OccupationNovelist, lecturer, art critic
NationalityCypriot, British
Alma materFrank Montgomery Secondary Modern School, Canterbury College of Technology, University of Leeds (B.A. and MRes.), and University of Nottingham (Phd.)
PeriodContemporary
GenreNonfiction, metafiction, satire
Website
www.michaelparaskos.com

Michael Paraskos, FHEA, FRSA (born 1969) is a novelist, lecturer and writer on art. He has written several non-fiction and fiction books and essays, and in the past contributed articles on art, literature, culture and politics to various publications, including Art Review, The Epoch Times, The Guardian newspaper and The Spectator magazine. Previously, he has also reviewed art exhibitions for BBC radio, and he has curated art exhibitions, and taught in universities and colleges in Britain and elsewhere. He has a particular focus on modern art, having published books on the art theorist Herbert Read, and he is also known for his theories connecting anarchism and modern art. He lives in West Norwood in south London.

Education and employment

Paraskos was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, the youngest of five children, to Cypriot parents.

As a child, his family moved to Kent, where Paraskos attended a secondary modern school in Canterbury Paraskos claimed in The Guardian that those who attend secondary modern schools "are condemned to a lifetime of social exclusion and crippling self-doubt".

After leaving school at the age of 16, Paraskos became an apprentice butcher at a Keymarkets supermarket. After becoming a vegetarian, he left butchery and enrolled in evening classes at Canterbury College of Technology to study for university entrance examinations. After this, he went on to attend the University of Leeds and University of Nottingham, studying at Leeds under the novelist Rebecca Stott, and at Nottingham with the art historian Fintan Cullen. At Nottingham University, he gained his doctorate in 2015 on the aesthetic theories of the anarchist poet and art theorist Herbert Read.

After teaching as a visiting part-time lecturer at various colleges and universities, and for the WEA from 1992 onwards, Paraskos was made head of Art History for Fine Art at the University of Hull from 1994 to 2000. In 2000, he went to work in Cyprus as Director of the Cornaro Art Institute in Larnaca, Cyprus, and also taught in Cyprus at the Cyprus College of Art.

After returning to Britain in 2014, he worked at SOAS, University of London until 2017, whilst also working as a lecturer at the City and Guilds of London Art School. Still teaching at the City and Guilds of London Art School, he is now a Senior Teaching Fellow and head of adult education at Imperial College London’s Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication.

As a freelance reviewer of books and exhibitions, he has worked for The Spectator magazine, and the London edition of the Epoch Times newspaper. He has also reviewed art exhibitions for BBC Radio's Front Row programme, and SVT Television in Sweden, and appeared on Tariq Ali's political and cultural magazine programme, Rear Window, produced for TeleSur Television, as well as on various radio programmes for the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

As a writer, he has published fiction and non-fiction extensively. His first fiction work, a novel entitled In Search of Sixpence, was published in 2016.

Anarchist art theory

Although he has never formally declared himself to be an anarchist, preferring instead the term syndicalist or co-operator, Paraskos's work has intellectual connections to anarchist ideas, and he has personal connections with anarchist circles.

In 2006, Paraskos wrote an article for the Cypriot art newspaper ArtCyprus entitled 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist' in which he used the theories of Francesco de Sanctis to argue that art creates new realities by destroying old ones. Although de Sanctis was not an anarchist, in Paraskos this statement, equating the creation of a new reality through the artistic destruction of an old one, seems to have sparked a particular interest in the relationship between anarchism and art. This was further developed in 2007 when Paraskos published an essay on his father, the artist Stass Paraskos and the painter Stelios Votsis, in which he argued that their series of collaborative paintings, begun when both artists had reached their 70s, represented a kind of "anarchist commune" on the canvas. Notably, Paraskos ended this essay, written in Greek and English, with the slogan "Ζήτω η αναρχική επανάσταση!", or "Long live the anarchist revolution!"

Paraskos's first novel, In Search of Sixpence, was described by the critic Paul Cudenec as an example of anarchist literature, with its "dizzying hall of mirrors, where reflected moments bounce around in a loop and end up staring each other in the face." This is an anarchist approach to literature, according to Cudenec, even if the subject matter might not seem overtly anarchist.

Fiction and non-fiction books

Michael Paraskos is the author of a number of non-fiction books on art. These include Herbert Read: Art and Idealism (2014) in which he explores the ideas of the British anarchist art theorist Herbert Read and Four Essays on Art and Anarchism (2015), a collection of four lectures turned into essays. He has also written monographs on the British artists Steve Whitehead (2007) and Clive Head (2010). He has edited books by and on Herbert Read and other subjects, and is the author of one work of fiction, In Search of Sixpence (2016). This book is a semi-fictionalised account of the life and death of Paraskos's father, Stass Paraskos, who died in 2014, but it is combined with a Chandleresque detective story and other elements. Real life figures are also woven into the book, including Ezra Pound and Mariella Frostrup. These elements, which undermine the division between fiction and non-fiction writing, form what Paraskos has described as a kind of disruptive anarchist literature, although the subject matter of the book is not overtly concerned with political anarchism.

A feature of both Paraskos's fiction and non-fiction writing is the place of the author in the writing. This is clear in the personal elements of his novel, In Search of Sixpence, where Paraskos is a character in his own novel, but in his non-fiction writings on Herbert Read, Steve Whitehead and Clive Head Paraskos also frequently refers to himself and uses personal anecdotes that have the effect of personalising the texts and rooting them in Paraskos's own experiences. His second novel, called Barfrestone was published in February 2024.

Cocktails

In 2015, responding to a call by the government-run Cyprus Tourism Organisation for ideas to promote Cypriot food and drinks to foreign visitors to Cyprus, Paraskos suggested a new cocktail using only Cypriot ingredients, called the ouzini. This was picked up by local media, and promoted by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation. Following a suggestion by the Cypriot journalist Lucy Robson that the problem with the ouzini was that it lacked a compelling story, Paraskos included the ouzini in his 2016 novel In Search of Sixpence.

Lists of publications

Books by Michael Paraskos

  • The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί (Nicosia: Εν Τύποις, Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007)
  • Steve Whitehead (London: Orage Press, 2007)
  • Re-Reading Read: New Views on Herbert Read (London: Freedom Press, 2007)
  • The Aphorisms of Irsee ) (London: Orage Press, 2008)
  • The Table Top Schools of Art (London: Orage Press, 2008)
  • Is Your Artwork Really Necessary? (London: Orage Press, 2008)
  • Clive Head (London: Lund Humphries, 2010)
  • Regeneration (London: Orage Press, 2010)
  • Herbert Read: Art and Idealism (London: Orage Press, 2014)
  • Four Essays on Art and Anarchism (London: Orage Press, 2015)
  • In Search of Sixpence (London: Friction Fiction, 2016)
  • Barfrestone (London: Orage Press, 2024)

Books including chapters by Michael Paraskos

  • New introduction to Herbert Read, To Hell with Culture (London, Routledge 2002)
  • 'Herbert Read' in Chris Murray (ed.), Key Thinkers on Art (London, Routledge, 2002)
  • New introduction to Herbert Read, Naked Warriors (London, Imperial War Museum Publications, 2003)
  • Various entries for Antonia Bostrom (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Sculpture (London, Routledge, 2003)
  • "The Prick of Conscience Leatherette Sofa", in Pippa Hale (ed.), Pipa Hale at the Patrick Studios, Leeds (Leeds: ESA, 2005)
  • "The Curse of King Bomba: Or How Marxism Stole Modernism", in Hana Babayradova and Jiri Havilcek (eds.), Spiritualita (Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2006)
  • "Herbert Read and Ford Madox Ford", in Paul Skinner (ed.) International Ford Madox Ford Studies vol. 6 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007)
  • "ME THN EYKAIPIA", in Ludmila Fidlerova and Barbora Svatkova (eds.), Mimochodem (By the Way), (Brno: Masaryk University Press, 2009)
  • Various entries in Ingrid Roscoe (ed.), The Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009)
  • "Bringing into being: vivifying sculpture through touch", in Peter Dent (ed.) Sculpture and Touch (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014)
  • 'Tea-trays and longing: Mapping Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus onto Cyprus' in Michael Paraskos (ed) Othello's Island (Mitcham: Orage Press, 2019)
  • 'Ανακαλύπτοντας τον εαυτό σου στη Χώρα του Henry Moore'

Reviews and discussion of work by Michael Paraskos

References

  1. "Anarchist Studies Network Conference 2.0 'Making Connections'" (PDF). Anarchist-studies-network.org.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  2. Panayides, Theo (8 April 2016). "Sensitive, creative, heart on sleeve". The Cyprus Mail. Nicosia.
  3. "Letters". The Guardian. London. 20 October 2015.
  4. Michael Paraskos, In Search of Sixpence (London: Friction Press, 2016) p. 220
  5. Michael Paraskos (ed.), Re-reading Read: New Views on Herbert Read (London: Freedom Press, 2007), p. 219.
  6. "'Notes on Contributors'". Journal of Women's Studies. 44. 2015. ISSN 0049-7878.
  7. Michael Paraskos (2016). In Search of Sixpence. Orage Press. ISBN 9780992924782. ASIN 0992924782 – via Amazon.co.uk.
  8. Michael Paraskos, Four Essays on Art and Anarchism (London: Orage Press, 2015) p.8
  9. Michael Paraskos, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist', in ArtCyprus, No. 1, Spring 2006, p.3
  10. Michael Paraskos, The Anarchists/Οι Αναρχικοί (Nicosia: Βουλα Κοκκινου Λτδ, 2007)
  11. Paul Cudenec, Anarchism, art, time and reality in Network 23, online publication, 16 December 2021, https://network23.org/paulcudenec/2015/12/16/anarchism-art-time-and-reality/
  12. Michael Paraskos (19 April 2015). "A perfect sundowner to replace the tired old brandy sour". The Cyprus Mail.
  13. Masha Salko, "Ouzini", 30 April, 2015, Moi Ostrov,
  14. "Meet Ouzini, the all Cypriot cocktail!". Cyprus Tourism Organisation. 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  15. Lucie Robson, "A good story will be the Ouzini's strongest ingredient", in The Cyprus Weekly (Cyprus newspaper), 1 May 2015
  16. Michael Paraskos, In Search of Sixpence, (London: Friction Fiction, 2016), p. 384.

External links

Interviews with Michael Paraskos

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