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Cassar, Joseph Paul: The Life and Works of Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra: Their Creative Partnership. Publication by Mariz Cassar, 2014. 336pp.
Husband and wife Lewis Wirth (1923-2010) and Helen née Cavarra (1926-1978) were two meticulous and insightful artists whose art was never given the exposure it deserved. Now, Joseph Paul Cassar’s book does them due justice.
Even though Joseph Paul Cassar never met the artists, their art spoke for itself and he has managed to capture their character and bring out their uniqueness without having ever knowing them. Their only daughter, Mariz Cassar, the mastermind and driving force behind this publication, agrees.
The art certainly has presence as I witness both when I read the book and all the more so when I view the originals at the recent exhibition at Auberge d’Italie in Valletta.
Both artists have captured Malta’s countryside in a way that alludes to their serenity, their love for the natural world and the patience they both must have had to take in their surroundings and transpose them to paint and paper.
In addition to coming to life through their paintings to people who did not know them, the artists interestingly came to new life to their only daughter since during the course of the conducting of research, Cassar discovered pertinent facts she never knew about her parents.
For example, the discovery of Cavarra’s drawings of female nudes revealed she had travelled outside Malta’s shores and attended a short course at Heatherly Art School in Chelsea, London, in 1948.
Finding directions to the school of art and further analysis of the drawings helped confirm the studies abroad and that the models were foreign.
Helen Cavarra’s numerous paintings of wildlife are so meticulously drawn, they are arresting and beg you to stop and take in the detail.
A sentimental dedication from Mariz Cassar to her parents opens the book. It sums up well the two artists who were “caring parents and lovers of nature who roamed the Maltese countryside in awe, picking, drawing and painting unique spe-cimens of Maltese flora, transforming dry science into the purest art form, contemplating and observing their wonders and serenity, enhancing the beauty and forms and colour, feeling part of creation and a piece of the ever changing spectacle”.
Cavarra’s flower paintings impressed me most. The level of detail she went into for plants such as the June Flower and the July Flower is extraordinary.
Cavarra found and painted over 380 flowers in the space of five years. Not even a photographer could do that as it is very difficult to find so many flowers in such a short space of time.
Her level of documentation is also detailed, both in terms of her going as far as to capture the disease of the plant in her painting, the exact size and colour of the plant and also in her scienti-fic documentation, her notes adhering to botanical style.
A word must also be said about the beautiful design of this coffee-table book. The pages are neatly laid out and the artists’ drawings, paintings and sketches stylishly adorn the pages.
Both artists have captured Malta’s countryside in a way that alludes to their serenity
On average, there are two to three paintings per page, meaning the works are big enough to allow close inspection. Works like the impressive, scratchboard, religious scenes are given the honour of a full page.
In addition to documenting the artists’ extensive portfolio, the publication offers insight into their lives and characters.
Short, but insightful, comments introducing the different sections of the book offer interesting information. On the religious works, for example, we learn of the couple’s steadfast Christian faith and religious ideas. These were expressed in their art and writings.
Comments about Wirth finding refuge in prayer at the monastery of St Clare really bring this artist to life.
My words cannot do justice, nor can I mention enough of the plethora of beautiful paintings that populate this book; but works such as Wirth’s ingenious experimental collages, both artists’ portraiture, and Wirth’s dreamy water-colour landscapes must be given due mention.
The reasons for these two talented and prolific artists remaining unknown is attributed mainly to the fact that they lived in Tripoli, Libya between 1951 and 1969 and were thus not active members of the different art groups in existence at the time.
For Cavarra, this is all the more so since she was producing work at a time when women were unfortunately marginalised and not considered as pro-tagonists in the prevailing art movements.