Inspired by ancient Greek poetess Sappho, American artist Alex Kyriakos was commissioned to create this bronze in 1973. A lyrical poet from the island of Lesbos, Sappho lived between c. 630 – c. 570 BCE.

This sculpture was located outside the Auckland Art Gallery until 2011, when it was moved as part of the renovations for the new gallery.

Aleko Kyriakos, born in 1937, was a Greek sculptor who trained in Athens. He became an internationally known bronze sculpture, regularly drawing on classical Greece for inspiration.

“as the sweet apple reddens on a high branch
high on the highest branch and the apple pickers forgot –
no, not forgot: were unable to reach

like the hyacinth in the mountains that shepherd men
with their feet trample down and on the ground the purple flower”

– Sappho, Fragment 105a and Fragment 105b

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Sappho – Aleko Kyriakos

Sappho – Aleko Kyriakos

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