Lucky Store, Valletta

One of the most awaited yearly exhibitions is unequivocally the BOV retrospective exhibition that has been held almost every year since the very first in 1999 that was dedicated to Antoine Camilleri. The Maltese artist being commemorated in what was the 25th edition of the BOV retrospective exhibition was Anthony Calleja (b. 1955), an artist whose journey saw him starting out as a sculptor, and who later discovered that he had a penchant for painting, of which he is today one of Malta’s leading exponents.

Calleja began his artistic training in a most traditional manner, assisting his uncle in his own workshop, focusing on salient as well as menial tasks, learning the hard way what it takes to conceive a work of art from scratch. Being the nephew of the late sculptor Anton Agius, himself the protagonist of one of the BOV’s retrospective exhibitions, Calleja started to help his uncle from the tender age of eight or nine. This was an invaluable experience where the young man assisted his uncle on large-scale commissions, including monuments.

Emigration bozzetto

This arduous training led him to distance himself from his uncle for some years, but proved useful a few years later when Calleja set up his own workshop, called Folklore Statuettes, in Ta’ Qali in 1978. Here, he successfully produced commercial statues for the market.

Calleja is known by many as a teacher. He took up a teaching post at the Government School of Art alongside Vincent Apap, an environment that urged him to work on drawings and paintings. He also subsequently taught graphic design at the Salvatore Dimech School for Craftsmen at Tarġa Gap, among other teaching posts, with the more memorable being the evening classes he held in his Baħrija studio for eight years, moulding the artistic formation of dozens of Maltese artists, giving them the opportunity to study the nude in a constructive environment. Calleja’s early musings as a painter were displayed in his first solo exhibition held in 1981 at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta. In 1982, he then followed an in­tensive course of drawing and etching on scholarship at the Accademia delle Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci in Perugia. This is where he formally studied the human form, a subject that was to become synonymous with his artistic production. And, in 2002, he obtained a Ba­che­lor’s degree in Design from Falkirk College for Higher Education in Scotland.

Calleja’s vast output, and the large dimensions of many of his pictures, made the selection of works that would represent his artistic journey challenging

This retrospective exhibition adequately commemorated important milestones in the artist’s professional career that spans almost four decades, including momentous, life-changing events such as the loss of a child and a health condition that were sure to impact on his artistic output, affecting the timbre of the palette and more. This is represented through the progress of the exhibition that showcased over 70 works in a variety of media. These included some older works in oil, drawings and several sculptures, but the exhibition largely consists of acrylic paintings on panel or canvas.

Enlightenment Sought

Calleja’s vast output, and the large dimensions of many of his pictures, made the selection of works that would represent his artistic journey challenging. The result was a crowded foyer, where paintings compete for the viewer’s attention and sculptures on stands along the panels that could have been more adequate for the event. Calleja’s works are often bright and replete with contorted bodies, abstracted and textured backgrounds, sometimes complemented by collage. His works are authoritative and commanding ones that demand to be viewed with space around each work, be they portraits, nudes, still lifes, or otherwise.

The exhibition was accompanied by a full catalogue featuring a well-written essay des­cribing the evolution of Calleja’s artistic career, alongside images that accompany the text.

It is a shame, therefore, that the space was cluttered, that there were discrepancies in some of the dates as they feature on the paintings and in the captions, and that one of the key pieces of the exhibition – presumably called Seeking Enlightenment as listed on the catalogue – was unfortunately captioned as Searing Enlightenment in the exhibition. This painting portrays the artist himself following a family tragedy.

Nonetheless, this retrospective amply re­vealed the introspection that inhibits the man as represented through many self-portraits and intimate portraits of his family members.

Ballerinas