One of Malta’s leading painters, Alfred Chircop, has set up another memorable exhibition of abstract paintings.
The soon-to-be 82 year old will be celebrating not just another birthday, but also another successful exhibition.
This exhibition consists of over 30 paintings of different dimensions which constitute his most recent works which he has incessantly been working on.
Chircop is a veteran artist. Born in Żebbuġ, he won several awards at the Malta School of Art in Valletta, which also entitled him to further his studies at the Accademia Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, the Bath Academy of Art at Corsham, UK and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.
The artist speaks very fondly and vividly about his time abroad, but especially about his time in the UK, where he met his wife, Margaret.
Alfred Chircop is widely considered to be Malta’s greatest exponent of abstract art and with good reason
Following his return to Malta, he taught at various levels in schools, sixth form and the Faculty of Architecture. He has never stopped painting himself, continually evolving his technique and style, allowing the Maltese exhibition going audience to keep learning from his personal artistic development.
Chircop is widely considered to be Malta’s greatest exponent of abstract art and with good reason as his work remains a landmark in contemporary Maltese art.
No study on the abstract expression in Malta can afford to do away with an in-depth study of Chircop’s development and his art has surely influenced many for his paintings helped shape the local art scene since the 1960s.
As the late and greatly-missed Fr Peter Serracino Inglott aptly put it: “By general critical consent, Chircop is the undisputed local master of the so called abstract language of art”.
Chircop’s paintings, no matter how large or small, require their own space to be seen and appreciated. And time.
The movement present in each work contributes to the vibrant palette, where the blank canvas often plays a determining role in a composition.
These works radiate energy and pulsate with life. They are the work of a mature and gifted artist who is showing that he can still contribute to the contemporary art scene.
I feel I must end with another apt Fr Peter quotation: “Between talk about Chircop’s paintings and really experiencing them, there is the same distance as between the scientific knowledge of the properties of water and its physical taste. There-fore, stop reading about them and look!”
Chircop’s exhibition is open until Saturday at the Fortress Builders, Fortifications Interpretation Centre, St Mark Street, Valletta.