The anti-colonial struggle between 1955 and 1959, followed by the inter-communal riots of 1963-1964 and the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974 marked the beginning of the artist’s anxiety over the future of his homeland which he expressed through a series of works entitled 'Agonies', painted between 1963 and 1977.

'Agonies Before and After' is the final piece in the series and it explores the anxieties of the Cypriot people in the period preceding and subsequent to the Turkish invasion. We see women threatened, trying to escape, and save what is most precious to them: their children, but also their animals with which the rural communities of Cyprus had a life-long relationship. Diamantis created a different style for this new reality, one that would allow him to convey the emotions and the soul of a people and a world that had lost its sense of inner balance; it was characterised by an Expressionistic and Symbolist approach.