Becoming part of the local artistic community was imperative for artists working in Malta. This varied according to individuals but generally the majority of contemporary artists went through a sequential process of exhibiting and later being commissioned for work. This cycle of events leads to public visibility and the accompanying understanding of which artists or groups of artists have left an impact and secured a place in a nation’s history. In the early 1990s there was little available infrastructure to facilitate this professional artistic trajectory. The Government School of Art, which had been extremely influential throughout the century, had by this decade changed into an evening school offering an art course. It was no longer the place to discuss new ideas while following art classes by leading local artists. The same happened at the Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, established in 1852. The management was of an older generation and it was difficult to build a bridge with new and upcoming artists. Moreover, both entities were mainly supported by the government and limited funds were available. Maintenance of the buildings incurred a high cost and little could be invested to make both places more appealing.163
Although small galleries were opening in the early 1990s where enthusiastic owners would try to sell and promote artists, these were short-lived. Among the several galleries there were Galerie 100, Creative Design, and the Melitensia Art Gallery.164 The local artistic infrastructure did not cater for gallery owners since most of the artists, especially by this decade, understood that art could sell locally and so conducted their own business.165 This
163 Little information is available on the recent developments of both the Government School of Art and the
Malta Society of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce. The information provided here is from conversations with individuals looking after the two premises, including Joseph Micallef, Head of the School of Art for several years; different members and one of the presidents of the Society.
164 The majority of galleries were active for only a few months, except for the Melitensia Art Gallery, located in
Lija. This gallery organised and exhibited modern and contemporary art by foreign and local artists from 1992 to 1996. See Matthew Attard, “The Gallerija Fenici and its Fostering of a New Artistic Sensibility” (B.A. (Art) diss., University of Malta, 2008).
165 The small size of Malta made it easy to get in touch with the artist to see the work and set a price on private
means that artists acted as their own managers and after public exhibitions, they personally followed up with possible patrons whether Maltese or foreign visitors.
Apart from the lack of infrastructure, there was also a generation gap. The key artists of the twentieth century in Malta, born between the late 1920s and the 1930s, were by this time no longer meeting as a group and holding discussions on art. That community
sensitivity, popular between the 1930s and the 1970s, had disappeared by the 1990s. By this decade, the artists who had acted as pioneers in the post-war and post-independence period were elderly or had passed away. Among the most active pioneers, one has to mention Antoine Camilleri and Gabriel Caruana who both acted as a bridge between artists of
different generations. However, the art scene remained formal in character and it was difficult to get in touch with artists unless one knew exactly where to find them.166
From my own experience, borne out by the experience of my contemporaries studying and working in the late 1990s, it was difficult to meet with artists unless an appointment was set up at their home or studio. It was also not easy to establish contact unless one looked up home addresses and sent a formal letter, or unless one was brave enough to telephone and introduce oneself. Few of these artists delivered lectures at the university, the local sixth form, or other schools, and there was still that teacher-student barrier which was difficult to contest.167 Thus, younger artists had no group or community to engage with and discuss
ideas: in fact, a more isolated mentality was becoming more apparent.168 The art groups that were popular since the post-war period had no ground roots in the 1990s.
Everyone could, however, visit the exhibitions that were generally free of charge in the hope of encountering an artist, but this was a rare occasion. Others opted to visit the
developments required of a country to become part of the European Union. This was achieved by awareness campaigns delivered by the Arts Council Malta.
166 Antoine Camilleri (1922-2005) was in his seventies by the 1990s, while Gabriel Caruana (1929-2018) was in
his sixties. Other influential artists and teachers, such as Esprit Barthet (1919-1999), Carmelo Mangion (1905- 1997), and Frank Portelli (1922-2004) were also elderly.
167 Apart from the local sixth forms there was the Government School of Art and the Art and Design School. 168 This isolation was partly due to the lack of a meeting place and the emerging private market evident in the
exhibitions at the National Museum of Fine Arts in South Street where the curators might be available. Nonetheless social etiquette was constraining and set up an invisible barrier: one had to inform the curators of the visit in advance or be confident enough to go unannounced. Exhibitions were another space where discussion could have developed further but artists or students had to plan their visit and have a good excuse to talk to the curators, at least on first meeting.169
The only potential place where one could meet artists and discuss art-related subjects in a ‘casual’ environment was at exhibition openings where social etiquette still played a strong role. Limited groups and individuals were invited so the same people used to attend. Everything was formal and elitist at this time. One had to show the invitation before going in, while government ministers and influential people in the arts sector used to deliver the
speeches. All exhibition openings were executed in the same format: the organiser or committee leader would welcome the invitees, then an art connoisseur would introduce the work, and finally, a minister or the President of the Republic would officially inaugurate the exhibition. This was standard procedure, as was the catering made available to entertain the guests.170 Yet, the invited participants were mainly collectors, prominent figures in society, key senior artists, museum curators, art organisers, and politicians. The only new comers allowed to attend were journalists who were normally invited by the artists or organisers in the hope that they would write a newspaper feature on the exhibition. Young people such as art students and young artists were not invited. In view of this limited participation and the
169 The meeting had to be set by phone or by writing a formal letter. It used to take long to set a meeting with the
curator or artist, unlike today where communication via email and social media is instant. Before this decade, small groups of artists used to meet at the museum with the curators, mainly Fr. Marius Zerafa. Also, one must note that there were small art groups at the time but very little information is known. Following an interview with Ruth Bianco, she told the author of an art group led by E. V. Borg, who at the time was an art critic on a local newspaper. Ruth Bianco interview with the author on November 15, 2014.
170 These standard procedures or habits can be further analysed by using Pierre Bourdieu’s Habitus theory. In his
paper, “The field of cultural production, or, the economic world reversed”, Poetics 12, (1983): 311-356, p. 312 he states that “the artistic field is a field of forces, but it is also a field of struggles tending to transform or conserve this field of forces. The network of objective relations between positions [within the field] subtends and orients the strategies that the occupants of the different positions implement in their struggles to defend or improve their positions.”
formal atmosphere, few or rather no controversial arguments were tackled at such events, including discussion about what was happening in contemporary art abroad. These rigid conventions were definitely one of the many reasons that kept the artistic community apart.171
The above issues are indicative of the strong sense of isolation felt in Malta at the beginning of the 1990s, a country cut off from central European artistic developments with few intellectual tools such as lectures and publications available to understand what was happening outside of the archipelago. This isolation affected the development of younger artists’ visual language, both as individuals and as members of an almost non-existent community. The only community available was that of established artists from an earlier generation which by this decade were elderly and could only be found at the exhibitions mentioned above.172