The art of war
Madeleine Gera captures the imperfect melancholic beauty of Valletta in her paintings.
Madeleine Gera's latest solo exhibition - entitled Eloise Halberd Valletta - was launched yesterday at the Museum of Fine Arts. Eloise Halberd Valletta is not a person but a woman's name referring to Valletta. Halberd refers to Operation Halberd which was a British naval operation that occurred in September 1941 in which a convoy of nine merchant ships left from Gibraltar to Malta to encounter a series of hardships on the way.
Partly inspired by her move into her Valletta studio, she explored a different side of Valletta which resulted in a series of paintings related to the World War II period and modern day city life. The collection features three specific themes: Valletta 2006-2007, which came about from her own strolling around the city; Valletta 1940-1942; and Cafés Bars Yesterday & Today.
Ms Gera has spent much time travelling and studying portrait painting. Her trademark portraits show up in this exhibition where she brings back characters from the past and transposes them into what would have been the nightlife and entertainment era of wartime Valletta.
She also paints similar scenes of the present day, thus creating a contrast between the life in Strait Street then and its potential for new life now.
The paintings are all oil on canvas with great detail given to faces and expression.
What the artist wishes to arouse is mostly the potential for the city to become alive and filled with the jazz bars, art galleries and cafés that once kept it going.
Ms Gera is fascinated by the imperfect beauty of this melancholic city. "Valletta is haunted by other Vallettas; at least that's what these fantastic crumbling façades suggest to me. It seems to say, this building was important once, but not any more."
Again, the idea of many Vallettas is brought out in her collection by contrasting images of the same scenes in different eras. "Some paintings in this collection refer to World War II because paradoxically Valletta was designed as a military installation to defend the Order of St John and the population from a reoccurring Ottoman invasion.
"It never happened, only to occur 400 years later... Valletta has never really recovered. There are still scars and fractures referring to the experience. More so, Valletta depopulated; nobody really wants to live there any more."
The artist said that the collection of paintings was triggered off after painting the canvas called Opera. It reflected the Opera House bombing and when the artist liked the final result she became more intrigued with the idea of exploring this theme. Her inspiration mostly came from literature. She mentions a book called Carve Malta On My Heart by Christine Ratliff. The story is as passionate as its title suggests, relating the experience of a dancer who lived in Malta and fell in love with a pilot who eventually disappeared without trace. She describes it as poignant. She speaks about the difficulties that must have been faced by our grandparents, most of which we would never imagine going through, and how lucky we really are. This book also gave Ms Gera an insight to city nightlife in pre-war Valletta.
"Another book which was edited by Ivan Callus and a dear friend of mine, Claire Thake, called War In Cultural Memory And The Madonna's Chosen People, also gave very moving first-hand accounts by Maltese people who lived through the experience," she said.
This interest that was now burning up in Ms Gera's mind was further supported by a visit to the Aviation Museum and the Lascaris War Rooms. She got to know more about aircrafts which one may notice featured in a number of paintings in this collection. She describes her visit to subterranean Valletta as something she needed to do to satisfy her "indescribable urge to revisit Valletta during this crisis".
As for the artist's style, her impeccable chiaroscuro technique persists. She explains that her work is about interpreting light on an object at a given time. "Some of the paintings in this exhibition may refer to the past, but they are reconstructed in such a way that I always used live models or Valletta. When I painted Sonnet for a Messerschmitt over Grand Harbour, I asked myself, how would I paint this if I were painting it at the time? Answer, in a hurry. So the image is laid in fast..."
The artist has clearly been deeply affected by this chapter in her career and has become surer of her work. In this collection she also experimented with visual anachronisms.
"I refer to the canvas called She Fell In Love With A Dead Man. If it happened in 1942, why is there a 1970s' TeleMalta phone?" As for colour, the artist only uses three colours apart from zinc white and black when she paints. Red turns up frequently in her paintings.
• The exhibition runs until May 21. It is being organised in collaboration with the Ladies Circle of Malta. Part of the proceeds of the exhibition will go to The Salesians of Don Bosco.
http://www.madeleinegera.com
Partly inspired by her move into her Valletta studio, she explored a different side of Valletta which resulted in a series of paintings related to the World War II period and modern day city life. The collection features three specific themes: Valletta 2006-2007, which came about from her own strolling around the city; Valletta 1940-1942; and Cafés Bars Yesterday & Today.
Ms Gera has spent much time travelling and studying portrait painting. Her trademark portraits show up in this exhibition where she brings back characters from the past and transposes them into what would have been the nightlife and entertainment era of wartime Valletta.
She also paints similar scenes of the present day, thus creating a contrast between the life in Strait Street then and its potential for new life now.
The paintings are all oil on canvas with great detail given to faces and expression.
What the artist wishes to arouse is mostly the potential for the city to become alive and filled with the jazz bars, art galleries and cafés that once kept it going.
Ms Gera is fascinated by the imperfect beauty of this melancholic city. "Valletta is haunted by other Vallettas; at least that's what these fantastic crumbling façades suggest to me. It seems to say, this building was important once, but not any more."
Again, the idea of many Vallettas is brought out in her collection by contrasting images of the same scenes in different eras. "Some paintings in this collection refer to World War II because paradoxically Valletta was designed as a military installation to defend the Order of St John and the population from a reoccurring Ottoman invasion.
"It never happened, only to occur 400 years later... Valletta has never really recovered. There are still scars and fractures referring to the experience. More so, Valletta depopulated; nobody really wants to live there any more."
The artist said that the collection of paintings was triggered off after painting the canvas called Opera. It reflected the Opera House bombing and when the artist liked the final result she became more intrigued with the idea of exploring this theme. Her inspiration mostly came from literature. She mentions a book called Carve Malta On My Heart by Christine Ratliff. The story is as passionate as its title suggests, relating the experience of a dancer who lived in Malta and fell in love with a pilot who eventually disappeared without trace. She describes it as poignant. She speaks about the difficulties that must have been faced by our grandparents, most of which we would never imagine going through, and how lucky we really are. This book also gave Ms Gera an insight to city nightlife in pre-war Valletta.
"Another book which was edited by Ivan Callus and a dear friend of mine, Claire Thake, called War In Cultural Memory And The Madonna's Chosen People, also gave very moving first-hand accounts by Maltese people who lived through the experience," she said.
This interest that was now burning up in Ms Gera's mind was further supported by a visit to the Aviation Museum and the Lascaris War Rooms. She got to know more about aircrafts which one may notice featured in a number of paintings in this collection. She describes her visit to subterranean Valletta as something she needed to do to satisfy her "indescribable urge to revisit Valletta during this crisis".
As for the artist's style, her impeccable chiaroscuro technique persists. She explains that her work is about interpreting light on an object at a given time. "Some of the paintings in this exhibition may refer to the past, but they are reconstructed in such a way that I always used live models or Valletta. When I painted Sonnet for a Messerschmitt over Grand Harbour, I asked myself, how would I paint this if I were painting it at the time? Answer, in a hurry. So the image is laid in fast..."
The artist has clearly been deeply affected by this chapter in her career and has become surer of her work. In this collection she also experimented with visual anachronisms.
"I refer to the canvas called She Fell In Love With A Dead Man. If it happened in 1942, why is there a 1970s' TeleMalta phone?" As for colour, the artist only uses three colours apart from zinc white and black when she paints. Red turns up frequently in her paintings.
• The exhibition runs until May 21. It is being organised in collaboration with the Ladies Circle of Malta. Part of the proceeds of the exhibition will go to The Salesians of Don Bosco.
http://www.madeleinegera.com