William Apap was born in Valletta on June 25, 1918, to Giovanni and Maria Anna Grimes, the youngest of five siblings who included his elder brother Vincent (1909-2003), the renowned sculptor and a major influence on his artistic formation. The childhood of young Willie, as he started being called by family and friends from an early age, coincided with the years that followed the Sette Giugno uprising of 1919.

Maltese nationalism had raised its head against British Colonialism, leading to a new Constitution, elections and a new National Assembly taking office in 1921. It was also the time when Fascism in Italy was fast gaining ground, with the Italian Fascist government opportunistically celebrating the Sette Giugno victims as martyrs and heroes of the Italian irredentism in Malta. Willie’s childhood also coincided with the opening of the Malta Government School of Art in 1925 from where, in 1937, he won a Travelling Scholarship for a four-year course in painting at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.

In Rome, Willie was to be joined by other Maltese students who were to become friends and later also established artists, like Victor Diacono (1915-2009), himself the winner of a Travelling Scholarship in modelling, Anton Inglott (1915-1945), Emvin Cremona (1919-1987), Esprit Barthet (1919-1999) and Carmelo Borg Pisani (1915-1942). Italy, in particular Rome, had forever been the natural habitat to where Maltese students would escape from their Mediterranean insularity. But to suggest that Apap’s trip north was simply a teenage adventure in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessors would be to understate the bigger project and artistic ambitions he had in mind.

Self-Portrait, oil on board, early work.

At the Accademia, Apap came under the influence of Carlo Siviero, a traditional disciplinarian in an Italian artistic landscape that had evolved in a fairly complex manner after World War I. Futurism, founded around a fiery, dynamic and revolutionary spirit, became a highly politicised art movement which merg­ed artistic and political agendas in order to propel change across Italy and Europe.

New art forms developed from it, like Aeropittura and the Novecento Italiano, the so-called ‘second generation’ of Futurist artists aspiring to become the official art of Fascism. Possibly because of its initial bombastic image, this school can be said to have had no real impact on Maltese art students in Rome, including the group of 1937 whose arrival coincided with the departure of Antonio Sciortino as director at the British Academy in Rome, where he had been promoting a futuristic style of sculpture.

These art movements were by now including such prominent names as Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) and Gino Severini (1883-1966), the former two with Carlo Carrà accredited with developing Metaphysical Art. Other schools that emerged from these currents were the Scuola Romana and Strapaesi. Notable exponents were Felice Casorati (1883-1963), Filippo de Pisis (1896-1956) and Fausto Pirandello (1899-1975). Apap was breathing this air of transformation and modernisation of Italian cultural activity as it mixed with the emerging politi­cal ideology of the time.

The participation at the Mostra and, in particular, his specific portrait of the King, was to be one of the highlights on the part of the prosecution at Willie Apap’s conspiracy trial in 1947

The Fascist regime was taking various initiatives to promote culture through the organisation of officially sponsored exhibitions which would give artists the opportunity to both show and sell their work. Late in 1937 the Pa­lazzo delle Esposizioni hosted the Mostra Augustea della Romanità, intended to mark the bi-millennial anniversary from the birth of Roman Emperor Augustus. The exhibition consisted of faithful replicas of Roman works of plastic art from all over the Mediterranean region and beyond.

King Vittorio Emanuele III, oil on board, c. 1940

Exhibits of Maltese provenance were sent for the Mostra Augustea, with the support of the Maltese government, which had fervently promoted such participation. The gazette Malta of December 22, 1937, reported that some 40 Maltese residing in Rome visited the Mostra. It was seemingly encouraged as a duty on all Maltese, residing or visiting the Eternal City, to pay homage to the exhibition. The Mostra marked a new era in the relationship between Fascism and culture. Mussolini now wanted the exhibition to be a landmark that would leave a deep impact on his people.

Back at the Accademia, Siviero’s approach was making its mark on Apap, whose early oeuvre would mirror that of his Neapolitan master - not much unlike Edward Caruana Dingli’s influence had left its mark on Apap and his contemporaries when they left Valletta for Rome. An overwhelming disorientation must have im­pacted the young artists as the limited opportunities they had in Malta contrasted with the contemporary aesthetic they found in the Eternal City.

Italy represented the artistic nirvana for young Maltese students whose aspirations were far from being satisfied by the British artistic establishment. Life at the Accademia was a break into a welcoming world which enabled the Maltese to mix with students of different nationalities, including Italians, Poles, Egyptians and Tunisians. It took them time to adjust to working using daylight considering that in Malta they were normally used to the yellowish artificial light in the evenings. They also started to be exposed to modern art, by discussing the topic among them and sporadically visiting museums and private galleries while being exposed to the popular media, from street posters to newspapers and magazines to the cinema.

From their gestation period at the Accademia, Apap and his fellow Maltese companions emerg­ed distinctly influenced by local artists of the time, most prominently Morandi – one of the modernist pioneers from the inter-war years. One could discern such floating spirit of melancholy, contemplation and monochrome in the still-lifes and initial religious works that were emerging from the hands of Inglott in particular, with both Apap and Giorgio Preca (1909-1984) later also recalling such ‘Morandian’ approach. This was also to be the journey for Apap as he searched for a modern idiom with his academic training remaining a reference point for future production.

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)

On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war. Inglott, Barthet, Diacono and Cremona had already returned to Malta a few weeks before, whereas Apap’s decision to remain in Rome – a British subject in enemy territory – was to mark the rest of his career. His belonging to the Regia Deputazione per la Storia di Malta (which then became the Comitato d’Azione Maltese) and the Gioventù Universitaria Fas­cista was seen by many as a sign that he had chosen new allegiances. At that time he had also painted a portrait of King Vittorio Emanuele III against the background of Malta’s Grand Harbour, in what was perceived to be a statement of his political adherences. Together with a number of other Maltese who had also decided to stay in Rome, Apap surrendered his British passport to the Italian authorities – a gesture which was symbolically interpreted as a renunciation of his British citizenship.

On May 16, 1941, the Comitato d’Azione Maltese, clearly enthused by the success of the Mostra Augustea, organised a Mostra di Malta at its headquarters in Palazzo Antici Mattei, close to Piazza Venezia, Rome. It was an exhibition promoting different aspects of Maltese culture and, where possible, Italian culture in Malta. The contemporary artists whose works featured in this Malta exhibition included Preca, Borg Pisani, Paolo Consiglio and Guglielmo (Willie) Apap. The exhibition, which ran until June 30, 1941, included 10 of Apap’s works, among them his Ritratto di S. M. il Re Imperatore. The exhibition was visited by the King on May 24 in what must have been the first and only encounter with his portrait. The participation at the Mostra and, in particular, his specific portrait of the King, was to be one of the highlights on the part of the prosecution at Willie Apap’s conspiracy trial in 1947.

The second part of this feature will appear next Sunday.