Alfred Chircop, one of Malta’s most celebrated abstract artists, passed away a week ago today. Charlene Vella celebrates his life, his art and his eternal youth.

Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio These are the words that Alfred Chircop incised on one of his large 2010 oil on canvas paintings.

Chircop passed away on April 26, 2015. Born on March 9, 1933, in Żebbuġ, he grew to be one of Malta’s most distinguished artists, one who had a very long and illustrious career.

Chircop and his family later lived in Valletta, even during the war years, where he first received formal artistic training at the Malta School of Art.

He later travelled to the Accademia Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, Bath Academy of Art at Corsham UK and Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome to further pursue his artistic aspirations.

It was in Corsham that he met his wife, Margaret, a fellow art student in the same academy. Chircop and Margaret celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year. I, like many others, am greatly saddened by Chircop’s loss. He was an art teacher to many and was also a lecturer in Design at the University of Malta Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering (now Faculty of the Built Environment). But he was also a great friend to many others.

It is not an exaggeration to say that with the loss of Chircop, Malta has lost one of its leading abstract painters, one who continued to evolve his style throughout his career, his palette becoming ever more intense in recent years.

This has resulted in Fr Gino Gauci calling him Iż-żagħżugħ ta’ dejjem (the eternal youth) after Dun Karm Psaila’s poem, which would elate him. Chircop’s love of life and his vigour can indeed be felt through each stroke of the brush. Painting was what made him feel most alive.

This is one of the things he confessed to Anna Galea when she interviewed him for her Masters dissertation on ‘The creative process in the art of painting’.

Self-portrait. Right: Untitled.

Chircop was an avid reader with an enlightened mind. It was his intellect, together with his talent and creativity, that produced his vast artistic output.

Moreover, classical music was an essential component when painting in his studio. Poetry and music were important to him, and the same lyricism one would use to describe music can be employed when discussing his works: the swaying movement of his lines, the broad horizontal strokes, the dramatic effect visible in his bleeding paint.

Indeed, Chircop once told me that he was very pleased that Judge JJ Cremona in the 1980s equated his paintings to symphonies.

This is an art that is distinctive to him, to Malta and will not be readily found elsewhere

Chircop was very much aware of his cosmic consciousness especially when painting. This was an emotion he believed to able to tap into naturally and which was somewhat mysterious.

He would sometimes not be able to explain how a painting of his became a successful painting, and believed every single one to be a little miracle.

While painting, Chircop would lose himself, move into a sort of trance which he himself could not explain. Painting was his life, and he knew this early on when he was a young man. Painting chose him, and not the other way round. And he was never one to paint to please others. Every work he ever produced was purely for his own satisfaction, to satisfy his natural urge to produce art.

He was, in fact, very attached to several of his creations which he refused to part with. The result is that Chircop has produced an oeuvre that is uniquely his own which he expertly executed in a variety of media – drawings, paintings, watercolours, etchings, aquatints, linocuts, monoprints, and more.

This is an art that is distinctive to him, to Malta, and will not be readily found elsewhere, and he will continue to be an inspiration to many artists.

Although he lived a relatively simple life with his wife Margaret, he had many close friends. Among his closest friends was Professor Peter Serracino Inglott (1936-2012) who died just over three years ago, and on whose birthday Chircop coincidentally passed away.

Fr Peter would sit in Chircop’s studio and look on in admiration at a few works at a time. Visibly in awe, the serene Fr Peter would comment on each one, and Chircop ever so proud that his works are being appreciated by the man he greatly admired.

Chircop was deeply religious and spiritual, and with Fr Peter he would often discuss his religious concerns and this gave him more energy to paint.

For Chircop believed in a loving God, not a punishing one, and tried hard to find beauty in the world around him.

In fact, Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio are words taken from Psalm 130, v.7, one of the penitential psalms. The entire verse would be translated as: “Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.”

This is very much how Chircop felt about life and the greatness of God. He will live on through his many creations.