Stations of the Cross at Mellieha Parish Church by Marco Cremona
Stations of the Cross at Gozo Cathedral by Austin Camilleri
The abstract art of Alfred Chircop featured in the collections of both the National Museum of Fine Arts and at the Wignacourt College Museum in Rabat. Chircop works with strong colours in movement across his canvasses. His abstract forms suggest the movement of spiritual forces; a sense reinforced by his Dominican schooling and the title he gave to the one painting he has titled; A Prayer. Also at the Wignacourt was Anton Agius’ wood carving of St Francis blessing the birds. The saint is tall and thin, hands and face raised in ecstasy. He emerges from the olive wood that Agius carves just as the birds that he blesses emerge from his body. He is integrated with nature and his head is crowned with leaves.
Significant changes have occurred in the Church’s approach toward contemporary art and nowhere is this clearer that at the Mdina Cathedral Museum. Here, under the direction of Monseigneur Professor Vincent Borg, this ecclesiastical museum has been developing a role not just in preserving Church cultural heritage but also as a “greenhouse of culture” enhancing and promoting Sacred Art.
The Museum has, for instance, a varied selection of works by Anton Agius which include a wonderful Redemption. Here Agius follows the grain of the wood upwards as a naked Eve stretches to touch the feet of the crucified Christ (the one who can embrace her as his unashamed Bride). Agius draws our eyes upwards to Christ his hands nailed above him with his pierced right hand releasing the dove of the Spirit. Amazingly, this work contains the sweep of salvation history within one flowing organic image.
In addition to its permanent collection, the Museum holds a Biennale exhibition of Contemporary Christian Art. The Biennale has led, in the words of Mgr. Borg, to a “new rapprochement” between the Church and artists and art-critics. It is instructive to compare the list of exhibitors in the Biennale catalogues with catalogues of exhibitions surveying contemporary art in Malta to see the amount of genuine overlap that exists.
This changed approach also shows itself in new Church commissions and I was able to see two examples in the Stations of the Cross at Mellieha Parish Church and Gozo Cathedral. At Mellieha, Marco Cremona has carved his Stations in clay. His Stations are characterised by the expressiveness of his carving, the clarity of his construction and his sense of context with his use of clay leading to a rugged construction that mirrors the Maltese landscape. In Gozo Cathedral, Austin Camilleri’s Stations make use of the fluid nature of paint working with drips of paint flowing down his canvas. These drips mirror the downward postures of Camilleri's characters in a series of Stations emphasising the apparent defeat of hope that is the disciples’ experience of the death of Christ on Good Friday.
Malta has a different story to tell with regards to Sacred Art from much of the rest of Europe. On these islands the issue has not been a lack of Church commissions for artists but the need to encourage those who commission to use the creativity of the best contemporary artists. That was the call of Père Regamy and Couturier in mid-twentieth century France and, through the influence of the Modern Art Circle, the writing of Serracino Inglott and others, and the leadership of Mgr Borg, it is a cry that in some small measure is being heard in Malta.
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Maria Mckee - To The Open Spaces.
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