Tomorrow evening I have been invited to meet the Prime Minister in one of those public forums organised by the Nationalist Party every year during Independence week; a PR exercise designed to remind the public that the success of the party is built on djalogu, which cannot be translated into the English dialogue as it means a completely different thing. Djalogu gives the impression of consultation; a two-way discussion during which professional expertise is married up with political pragmatics. I have been asked to speak about the arts; a vast subject indeed and one that simply cannot be tackled once a year in September.
In as far as the visual arts are concerned, Malta is blessed indeed with the quantity and quality of its contemporary professional artists. While on behalf of my friends and colleagues and in my own capacity I would wish to thank the public for its unflaggingly enthusiastic support, I would like to point out that it is high time that the ministry actively sponsored the setting up of some academy or association that would give recognition to professional artists just as it does to pharmacists, accountants or lawyers.
With that out of the way it would be interesting were the Ministry of Finance to consider the introduction of tax and VAT concessions for artists as in other EU countries. Art is a creative process. The financial and business aspects of being an artist more often than not impede this process and sometimes also places insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles. It is very difficult to be consistent in income amounts because sales are not regular and sometimes unpredictable, which is why it is very, very difficult to live off one's art. But one tries. At the end of the day, the production of works of art makes Malta collectively richer, which brings me to the next lacuna; the non existence of a Museum of Modern Art.
Despite the fact that we all know and agree that the legacy of artists like Barthet, Arcidiacono, Cremona, Calì and Portelli, to name but a handful, has enriched us immeasurably, there is no museum to house their works, leaving a couple of centuries of art unaccounted for. The establishment of a Museum of Modern Art is vastly overdue. Today's contemporaries are tomorrow's moderns and not only do we owe it to the memory of the great Maltese artists who have contributed to the cultural richness of this country but also to future generations. For too long has art in Malta come to a full stop in 1798. What was produced from that time till the present day is largely invisible, apart from a smidgeon in the Fine Arts Museum and in churches.
The Museum of Modern Art should not only contain works by Maltese artists but those of international fame too. This can be achieved if the right tax incentives are put into place that will encourage private collectors to "loan" or "donate" works of art to the people of Malta. Museums overseas, notably the Metropolitan and the MOMA in New York, are full of such loans and bequests. Even before these tax incentives are put into place it is essential that the actual building is established as nobody in their right mind will either loan or donate a work of art to the nation knowing that it will end up in some store room.
These works of art will be a permanent memorial of the donor whose name will be kept alive rather like that of Anna Maria Ludovica, who, as the last of the Medici, ensured that by leaving the family collection to the "people of Florence" none of it would be spirited off to Vienna. The reason why Florence remains the artistic mecca of Europe is thanks to this childless princess, the product of a marriage made in hell and the victim of her own loveless marriage to the Elector Palatine who instead of children gave her syphilis! Despite this, today, her name is still revered and the first portrait that confronts you upon entering the Uffizi is hers.
The names of all the great patrons of the arts from Lorenzo il Magnifico to Peggy Guggenheim remain household names even in this practically iconoclastic age wherein artists seem to be thrashing against the current with the dogged obstinacy of salmon to seek what they call originality in a negation of both inspiration and hard work. Even these artists find patrons in the form of organisations such as Saatchi: an eye-opener, for, as we all know, Saatchi is the world's most famous advertising agency! This is why it is essential that our government is to direct far more TLC to the arts for it is what is achieved artistically during their tenure that will really live after them.
kzt@onvol.net