When I voted in favour of Malta joining the EU I was under the impression or possibly the hope that Malta's long history of artistic insularity would come to an end and, being part of the great concert of European nations, would open up a plethora of opportunities. As I am an artist by profession I hoped that being an EU country would mean that we artists would have a greater interaction with artists from other countries and that Maltese artists would have greater opportunities of showing their work abroad and vice versa. There would possibly be exhibitions of modern and contemporary artists being brought over and vice versa and also that celebrated travelling exhibitions would also find their way to our shores and vice versa. Of all these dreams not one has yet materialised.
The greatest drawback to all this vice versa-ing is that it is still prohibitively expensive to transport art to and from Malta. This would or should have been the prime consideration of the EU negotiators. To date, no artist I know has managed to benefit from EU finding and when a group of us enquired about it some time ago the bureaucratic channels were so complicated and Byzantine that we gave up.
The only advantage we have in Malta as a group is that VAT on works of art is five per cent, however I have been told that, in Ireland, registered, established artists are not even taxed let alone vattable!
The financial situation remains disadvantageous. Artists in Malta are working within a limited environment and it is therefore necessary for the ministry concerned to do its utmost to "export" Maltese art and to encourage the "import" of continental art. It is this healthy mix that will provide a healthy stimulation to bring Maltese art into the mainstream.
If any of you readers ever get the bright idea of wanting to see works by Maltese modern artists like Esprit Barthet, Giuseppe Arcidiacono, Carmelo Mangion, Frank Portelli, Emvin Cremona or Willie Apap, to name but a few, the sole option would be to delve into either the first or second edition of Nicholas de Piro's International Dictionary Of Artists Who Painted Malta for there is no Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Malta and, yet, nor have I heard of one that is envisaged.
The Museum of Fine Arts in South Street, Valletta has a very limited number of 19th and 20th century artists on display, most of which form part of the Caruana Dingli Bequest and who are not even Maltese. The museum is overstuffed as it is with the enormous Ducros landscapes uncomfortably placed in a passage-like room, where it is impossible to appreciate their poetic beauty. I know that a new wing of the museum has been planned for many years but, pray, where is it and when is it going to be completed? Thank goodness for internet, as through it one has access to all sorts of art that one can study without the necessity of either going abroad to view exhibitions or visit museums. All one has to do is Google an artist's name and, hey presto, one can see a great body of work without any effort at all. That is a good thing but can never ever replace the thrill of the real thing. This is like restricting one's appreciation of music to recordings alone and never experiencing the inimitable thrill of a live performance.
I can never forget the sense of wonderment when I stood before the Velasquez portraits in the Kunsthistorisches, in Vienna; particularly the portraits of the ethereal Infanta Margarita Teresa, who married her Uncle Leopold and died in childbirth aged 19, inspired Ravel to write his heart-wringing Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte. She was the same princess that was the protagonist of one of the greatest paintings of modern times, Las Meninas, what was, in turn, the source of inspiration for artists like Picasso and Bacon to reinterpret!
Who can recreate the experience of actually standing in a room with all the gorgeous full length Van Dyck portraits; the ones of Charles I with his sad ill-fated face on those magnificent horses with swishy manes and the splendiferous ladies in their hieratic embroidered dresses, wind-blown swathes of silk and cascades of priceless lace?
A couple of Caravaggios brought over every four centuries is nothing to write home about or pat oneself on the back for! There is still a very long way to go.
Malta must make sure that every itinerant exhibition going should also be shown locally and negotiate for Maltese art to be exhibited abroad showing Malta to be the microcosm of Europe that it is. During the reign of the Order, Maltese artists enjoyed the rich patronage of the Order itself, the Church and the evolving aristocracy, which aspired to be at par with the scions of the great European houses that lived here like the Correa de Souzas and the Guttenbergs. During the great auction sales held by the French after the departure of the Knights, the Maltese well-to-do bought up the bulk of the Order's art treasures and they remain in private collections till this very day. This is why the man in the street was and still is largely unaware of his heritage despite Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti's breakthrough exhibitions of Maltese artistic prowess.
During the British period we had the rise of the landscape artists like Schranz, Brockdorff and Gianni who painted "souvenirs" for the British naval officers and who, in turn, spawned the modern landscape artist. Before WWII, promising artists were sent to study at the Belle Arti in Rome on a regular basis. Since the 1950s our art scene has declined. Maltese artists rely largely on private individuals to buy their art and, thus, enable them to create. There is very little state support.
Our top priority must be a Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art wherein there will also be space for exhibitions of modern and contemporary art from other EU countries. The wonderful Renato Guttuso exhibition in Rome a couple of years ago comes to mind. It is of paramount importance that up-and-coming generations of Maltese artists, let alone the Maltese art-loving public, have the opportunity of appreciating works by all those artists active in Malta since the middle of the 19th century to the present day and who to date have no place to call their own. That splendid arched warehouse in Senglea that was once hidden by the Number One Dock would be an ideal choice. What's stopping the Ministry of Arts? Money? Can the EU not help? Can a dynamic and savvy NGO be established to help Maltese artists spread their wings and facilitate their holding exhibitions overseas at costs not beyond those available to artists from the mainland?
There is more to life than the price of tinned tuna. The promotion of the arts can only become a reality when the only entity that can afford to subsidise it, the government, would opt to do so. The sooner the better.
kzt@onvol.net