Negative reactions to the work of these artists went beyond the Church alone. Joseph Paul Cassar has written that their works initially aroused uproar from certain quarters in Malta and “they were widely criticised for not having mastered art – for not knowing how to paint.”[i] With hindsight it is now apparent that these artists – who banded together under an everchanging series of titles from the Modern Art Circle to Atelier ‘56 – were a particularly gifted and innovative group.
Each had had contact with Modern Art through studies in Europe but, while influenced by the great art movements of their day, their greatest achievement was to absorb these influences in order to develop their own individual and innovative styles. For many this involved radical decisions in their choice of materials; Emvin Cremona worked with broken glass pressed into impasto, Josef Kalleya incised flat reliefs of clay and fibre-glass, while Antoine Camilleri created paintings in clay. The persistence and creativity of such artists eventually paid dividends with belated recognition for their work and the opening up of greater opportunities for younger generations.
A family holiday provided me with the opportunity to see some of their work and assess the extent to which their legacy had opened up opportunities for others. One impact of the lack of early Church commissions for these artists is that the national collections of Modern Art feature religious themes to an extent that is unusual elsewhere in Europe. At the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta three pieces in particular stood out.
Willie Apap’s Benedizione sets the central figure of Christ in a column of God's light as he blesses the woman who kneels at his feet. Apap’s vertical streaks of light and shade create a sense of mystery immersing the supporting cast in the surrounding atmosphere and highlighting the central theme of holiness touching humanity. In his Agony in the Garden Frank Portelli divides the picture plane in two. In the right half, three disciples sleep in the white heat of a siesta sun while in the left, Christ prays reaching out and up towards the silver cup of suffering held by an angel behind him. Amidst a disturbance of reds and purples Portelli's green Christ, through acceptance of his purpose, is alive, awake and fertile in a dry and barren land. Antoine Camilleri, focused on the crucifixion itself in his construction, Xandru L-Imhabba (Preach Love), which uses a TV aerial for the cross from which a thin but vigorously arching Christ hangs. From the front Camilleri’s Christ hangs in pain from a particularly spiky cross but from a side view appears arched and flexed for a great resurrection leap back into life.
[i] J.P. Cassar ed., art in malta today, St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, 2000.
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John Fahey - Lion.
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