Local art reviews that appeared regularly in all local newspapers throughout the 1980s, refer to this decade as a mature phase for contemporary art where the dominant experimental idiom was abstract art.117 These reviews suggest that this decade was a mature phase because of the number of solo and collective exhibitions organised primarily by two new art spaces: the commercial gallery Gallerija Fenici in Valletta and the extremely short-lived Museum of Contemporary Art in St Julian’s.
Gallerija Fenici, inaugurated on 12 November 1980 was situated within the Mediterranean Conference Centre – a building on the outskirts of Valletta run by the government. During the 1980s the gallery became an important landmark for contemporary Maltese Art and it reflected the growing local art scene.118 The conception of the gallery was
developed and run by the artist Norbert Francis Attard, the event organiser George Glanville and philosopher Kenneth Wain who were later to become major champions of Maltese art as I discuss in subsequent chapters. The gallery also became known as a venue where new ideas were launched.119 It hosted diverse exhibitions both from local and foreign artists ranging
117 See Katya Borg,” Abstract Painting in Malta in the 1980s” (M.A diss. University of Malta 2006).
118 Norbert Francis Attard, George Glanville and Kenneth Wain conceived of the idea of opening this gallery. 119 Gallerija Fenici was 40 meters long, with three levels divided with the help of a number of stairs between
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from collective to individual, from sculpture to painting, posters and installations, including the work of Victor Pasmore and Victor Vasarely side by side with Maltese artists’ work.120 Most particularly, it placed importance on promotion and corporate identity so that each exhibition had individually designed invites, brochures and catalogues that represented a new departure in commercial gallery organisation in Malta.121
An indication of the local contemporary art scene in the mid-1980s is evident through the compendium-style publication Contemporary Maltese Artists (1985) by Adrian Stivala who was involved in the organisation and promotion of the events at the Fenici gallery while writing exhibition reviews on a local newspaper.122 Stivala dedicates one page to a total of 93 established and emerging artists including a short biography and an image of their work predominately in black and white. Although the publication offers little detailed discussion, it represents a cross section of contemporary artists engaged in painting, ceramics, sculpture and photography. Notably, no performance or installation art was included. It is also marks the recent closure of Gallerija Fenici with a small section in the forward dedicated to the gallery which had to close in October 1984 when the organisers received a letter from the government who owned the building.123
The first Museum of Contemporary Art in Malta was inaugurated by the government on 5 July 1986 [Figure 14].124 As the name indicates, this was an important embracing of the
contemporary. The inauguration ceremony is still remembered by many and in one newspaper review a detailed description of the event was given, however only this review and another article reported the opening.125 The catalogue, or rather leaflet, contained a full
120 See Matthew Attard, “The Gallerija Fenici and its Fostering of a New Artistic Sensibility” (B.A. (Art) diss.,
University of Malta, 2008).
121 By the 1980s, repetitive exhibition trends were broken with the opening of Gallerija Fenici which used to
organise solo and collective international shows and exhibit experimental works like installation art. A number of catalogues were kindly donated for research purposes by George Glanville, who was one of the main organisers, in October 2001.
122 Adrian Sitvala, Contemporary Maltese Artists (Malta: North Star Publication, 1985).
123 See Katya Borg,” Abstract Painting in Malta in the 1980s” (M.A diss. University of Malta 2006). 124 See Katya Borg 2006, pp 76-77.
historical description of the building but unfortunately it did not include a list of the
participating artists or of the director/curators looking after the museum. In the same building there was a social security office, a restaurant and cafeteria and a disco, apart from the space where arts, crafts and folklore objects were displayed. While the designation of a Museum of Contemporary Art suggests a recognition of new developments, leafing through the
information one wonders if it was really the inauguration of a contemporary museum or the opening of a social complex.126 The exhibition galleries consisted of five very small rooms on the third floor of the building where painting, sculpture and ceramics were exhibited together. By the end of the next year the museum was closed down in 1987.127
Fig. 14 Main Entrance of Spinola Contemporary Museum (1986) (Courtesy MUŻA, Heritage Malta)
As these short-lived initiatives suggest, most Maltese artists until the late 1980s were still executing artworks that met their patrons’ expectations while simultaneously
experimenting where possible. Religious art, mainly painting and sculpture, remained current. Some artists created these works in alignment with their personal Catholic values while
126 Il-Palazz Spinola, complex inauguration leaflet, 1986. 127 See Katya Borg 2006, p. 77.
others did this solely to please patrons and the general public. Most artists who explored this theme would distort the formal elements of the composition but they failed to create
something that could make the work stand out. Those who scrutinised this theme managed to do so by looking into concealed spirituality. The most influential artists who interpreted spirituality were Josef Kalleja and Antoine Camilleri while the only artist who managed to gain patron’s support while working with an avant-garde language was Emvin Cremona.128
Artists in Malta interpreted spirituality by using different means and styles. Some, for example, presented distorted or nearly abstract compositions, while others represented spirituality by linking it to contemporary social aspects which was not always appreciated or understood by the general public.129
The second significant subject matter which remained extremely popular into the 1980s was landscape painting which represented Malta’s indigenous natural elements visible in rural areas and villages. This genre, long practised by artists who lived under British rule, can be seen as continuing a colonial legacy. Within a broad definition of modernism, most of these works could not be regarded as engaging with modernist forms. Nevertheless, these were - and still are - the most popular artworks among local people and tourists visiting Malta.
Other artists combined abstract elements with more popular themes that included religious compositions, landscapes and related figurative painted artworks in a recurrent manner until the 1980s. Nonetheless the exhibitions presenting abstract art were regarded as the most contemporary, albeit without the general public’s acceptance. On the other hand, these works were highly praised by artistic communities, most of which were in touch with Victor Pasmore.
128 In the 1950s, Emvin Cremona started experimenting with abstraction in line with European developments
(Tachisme and Art Informel). In the meantime, he received several church commissions in which he used a representative form of art accepted by the Church. See Dominic Cutajar, “Emvin Cremona” in Malta: Six
Modern Artists (Malta, Malta University Services Ltd: 1991).
One could argue that the encounter with and encouragement of Pasmore might have led some of these artists to decide to focus mainly on the production of abstract art,
dominated by modernist abstraction, even though this style, like former modernist styles before it, was regarded as passé when measured by an international westernised scale by the late 1980s.130
From the above, it is evident that throughout the post-independence decades, the artists who were regarded as contemporary were those who created abstracted subjects influenced by cubism or abstract art. From a European-based modernist perspective, one might argue that the advent of abstraction in the local art scene was in line with the rest of Europe, since it involved a number of artists experimenting with new painterly forms, while others in Malta were still working in traditional and acceptable styles. This combination of painterly styles encapsulated the visual art ecosystem of post-independence Malta.
1.6 Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the fragmented and partial documentation of modern Maltese art immediately prior to and post-independence, and readings of postcolonial art, this chapter has identified the key aspects of the Malta’s art scene prior to 1989.
What has become evident in terms of infrastructure and support is that the Malta Society of Art, Manufacture and Commerce, set up in 1852 on the British model of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), played the most significant role for the art sector throughout this period by promoting Maltese art both locally and abroad through organising major exhibitions. In the 1950s they supported new art groups such as Atelier ’56 and Spectrum
130 Pasmore’s first solo exhibition in Malta was held on the Malta Society of Art, Manufactures and Commerce
premises in 1970. His second was held at the National Museum of Fine Arts in 1975. The next solo exhibition was held at Gallerija Gaulos in Gozo between April and June of 1993 and the fourth one at the Cathedral Museum in December 1993. The majority of collective exhibitions were held at Gallerija Fenici. For example,
International Graphics I held in 1981 and Untitled in 1982. In 1983, Pasmore participated in two exhibitions at
the gallery: International Graphics II and Magritte, Pasmore, Vasarely and… See Borg,“Victor Pasmore in Malta” 2002.
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’67, and secured and organised Malta’s participation at the Venice Biennale of 1958 in the Italian Pavilion. Post-independence, the same society organised a series of exhibitions at the Commonwealth Institute in London, including the 1967 Contemporary Art from Malta exhibition, and in 1970 opened an exhibition space in Malta’s capital.
As shown, the commercial and gallery infrastructure supporting contemporary developments in Malta was highly unstable: immediately after independence economic growth facilitated the opening of a number of private run galleries which offered new spaces for artists to exhibit. However, the majority were closed by the 1970s due to the economic downturn and it was not until the 1980s that the commercial sector, primarily through
Gallerija Fenici, together with the inauguration of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1984, offered brief opportunities. In parallel to this scenario art production by key local artists were supported by the British artist Victor Pasmore who encouraged a more abstract language and art critic A.C. Sewter who regularly encouraged artists.
As identified, the dominant patrons pre-Independence and post-independence were the Church and the government which favoured figurative and religious art. The emergence of a more contemporary style, predominately modernist in form, is evident through Maltese artists involvement in the pre-Independence Venice Biennale of 1958 and subsequent post-
Independent exhibitions at the Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery that Kobena Mercer describes as “New Commonwealth Internationalism.” Here paintings and sculpture
incorporate a mix of modernist visual language and indigenous native elements, prevalent in Malta as elsewhere, including artworks exhibited at the institute by artists from ex-colonies in Africa and South Asia.
However, as I have argued, the political and social changes of post-independence did re-position Malta and Maltese art as an ex-colony in a wider geo-political sphere that offered some opportunities to artists to exhibit abroad and to recognise that their works were part of a wider engagement with modernist languages of painting that adopted cubist inspired and
abstracted forms. As discussed, through the analysis of specific exhibitions and the sparse recorded histories and publications of this time, ‘contemporary’ art was in most cases synonymous with or interchangeable with modernist art meaning painting primarily. ‘Contemporary’ did not mean the exploration of new media or experimental forms of presentation beyond painting. The one exception to this was the work of Attard who experimented with participatory art in the mid 1970s as discussed.
In conclusion, this chapter shows the blurred and often indistinct boundaries between modern and contemporary art in Malta and the gradual emergence of a sense of the
contemporary as being part of wider international developments predominately abstract in form. The understanding of what contemporary art practice might encompass becomes more diverse from 1989 onwards as discussed in subsequent chapters.
Chapter 2
A Time of Transition: Artistic Practices in Malta and Exhibition Cultures: 1989-1998
2.1 Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to identify the transitions in Maltese artistic practice and exhibition making from 1989 to 1998 that I argue are indicative of a new awareness of international contemporary art developments. In this research, I employ the definition of contemporary art developed by James Elkins:
[S]omething is contemporary if you can attach it to its region, country, or area—but at the same time it is not problematic to imagine placing the work in an international art fair. A second way of thinking about the
contemporary, which is also not often discussed, is that the contemporary would be that period in which art historians, theorists and critics started to worry about the globalization of their own disciplines.131
The works of art discussed here and in the following chapters are by local artists and are “not problematic to imagine […] in an international art fair”, as I will show. Furthermore, the artists and few supportive curators were aware of this globalised framework and also acutely aware that contemporary art developments in Malta were regarded as a belated experience compared to central European developments. Less evident, following Elkins’ definition, is the concern of art historians, theorists and critics in Malta to the threat of globalisation given the general lack of such a supporting infrastructure. As I will argue, artists became the main theorists and their anxieties were not about the global per se, given their recognition of the much needed visibility of Maltese art that had not been addressed in either the European context or the north-south debates, but more about how their shifting practices would be supported by an under-developed infrastructure, and government-led policies and initiatives.
131 Loredana Niculet, “The Shifting Condition of Art Discourse: an Interview with James Elkins,” Disturbis, no.
From one perspective, this chapter focuses on Malta as an island with little resources on the periphery of Europe, and analyses postcolonial influences on its art production and exhibition making, the role of the Roman Catholic church, and of collective exhibitions during this period, including the inauguration of the Maltese biennial in 1995 by Dame Françoise Tempra who invited foreign artists to exhibit alongside local artists. Although exhibition standards were dissimilar to international biennials abroad, I discuss and analyse Tempra’s initiatives from a local standpoint and the subsequent first attempts at contemporary curatorial practice in Malta by museum curators, and artists, through self-organised solo and collective exhibitions.
The second important perspective is the identifiable transition from the aesthetics of painting to the use of found objects and concept-based installations from 1989. The first examples of installations and concept based works are identified and analysed to show how this gradual transition occurred and how artists’ initiatives shaped this approach to
contemporary art in Malta. In this context, the chapter acts as a fulcrum to the whole thesis by identifying the varying practices of artists that were recognisably contemporary in their concerns and accompanying shifts in exhibition cultures, chiefly installation art.