My friend Stass Paraskos, who has died aged 81, was the most significant Cypriot artist of his generation. In 1966, Stass gained notoriety in the UK when the police raided Lovers and Romances, an exhibition of his work at the Leeds Institute Gallery, following a complaint from a member of the public, and charged him with obscenity. The trial led luminaries of the art world, including Herbert Read, Quentin Bell and Norbert Lynton, to speak in Stass's defence, but the case was still lost. This made Stass the last artist in England to be prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act of 1838 that had earlier been used against DH Lawrence.
Born in the village of Anaphotia, Stass was the son of a peasant farmer. In 1953, he emigrated to Leeds to work as a waiter, until a chance meeting with the charismatic art lecturer Harry Thubron led him to enrol at Leeds College of Art. There he met Terry Frost, who persuaded him to move to Cornwall and live among the artists of the St Ives school.