OAR@UM Collection:https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/411782024-03-29T05:56:39Z2024-03-29T05:56:39ZThe dialectics of tradition and modernity in twentieth-century Maltese art: an analysis of the relationship between old and new values and the making of modern art in Maltahttps://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/646902022-01-31T17:06:16Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: The dialectics of tradition and modernity in twentieth-century Maltese art: an analysis of the relationship between old and new values and the making of modern art in Malta
Abstract: The research primarily focuses on the Modernism’s development vis-à-vis Roman Catholic hegemony and church patronage. The reason for this is that the pervasive influence of the church on all spheres of Maltese life meant that its power was effective even in extraneous situations when the church was not directly involved in proceedings, as will be shown throughout this study. Hegemony is enacted through force and consent; it is both imposed and naturalised so as to establish conventions for thought and behaviour. This model for understanding the effectivity of power gives explanations as to why Modern artists encountered many enduring obstacles. Other power structures that determined Malta’s twentieth-century history; the British colonial government, the business and trade community, the political class, and other factions will not be discussed despite their significance. The absence of artistic patronage stemming from these latter contingents is a notable issue that is being addressed in ongoing research beyond the scope of this thesis.1 It is being proposed here that Modern art’s development faced its greatest, but not sole, challenge due to the status quo defined by the Roman Catholic worldview; its ideological and moral conventions. Each of the chapters have centred on the subjects of critical and art historical writings, the conflict between rurality and urbanisation, church patronage and spiritual artistic idioms, art criticism and autonomy and the lack thereof, and, finally, the evolution of abstraction and the persistence of figuration in the later twentieth century. Special emphasis has been placed on these topics because each presents a series of significant art historical issues that manifest the ideological and socio-political factors which determined the evolution of Modern art in Malta.
Description: PH.D.HISTORY OF ART2019-01-01T00:00:00ZThe art of experience : the impact of art through a phenomenological perspective : an artistic representation on memory and human experiencehttps://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/550532020-05-04T12:16:03Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: The art of experience : the impact of art through a phenomenological perspective : an artistic representation on memory and human experience
Abstract: The thesis and project ‘Fejqan’ is an autobiographical work that promotes the idea of
memory and experience. The project is targeted to the public members of society where
they are invited to look and reflect upon the experience being gathered upon viewing the
work and reflect it to their own memory. This would lead to creating personal links with
the work and instill discussions through the interrelation between the human experience
of producing the work from memory and the act of experiencing the artwork itself.
Academic research together with practical sessions helped to realise the project through
exploring the necessary materials and skills provided to produce the initial concept into a
tangible artwork. The main aim for the project is to link the question on how art is related
to human experience. Moreover, the work seeks how artists deal with memories and other
people’s experiences by creating various and inspired works of art.
Description: M.A.HIST.OF ART2019-01-01T00:00:00ZGiuseppe Arcidiacono (1908-1997) : a critical assessment of his artistic outputhttps://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/550502020-05-04T12:09:33Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Giuseppe Arcidiacono (1908-1997) : a critical assessment of his artistic output
Abstract: The process of identifying the artist’s work started with a survey of persons known
by the author to be avid collectors of contemporary art and Melitensia. These contacts
lead to a wider circle of people who own one or more of Arcidiacono’s paintings. In all,
forty-three households were visited to view, photograph and measure these paintings.
This also provided the opportunity to conduct a discreet enquiry into their provenance
and to gather information about the artist from persons who knew him personally. This
search was supplemented by visits to art galleries and auction houses to identify paintings
by the artist that have passed through these institutions. An internet search revealed a
couple of paintings by Arcidiacono that were being offered for sale. A visit to Burlington
House in London provided information about the artist’s entry in 1981 for the Summer
Exhibition organized annually by the Royal Academy in London. A search for paintings by Arcidiacono in public institutions was not too fruitful. Heritage Malta owns few
paintings by Arcidiacono despite the fact that he had exhibited his work on several
occasions in museums that are now managed by this organisation. Throughout this study, I make an attempt to identify the major influences that
guided or inspired Arcidiacono during his long career. He inherited his artisan skills and
his flair for furniture design from his father, Santo, who had settled in Malta in 1908 to
open a furniture factory on the island. Robert Caruana Dingli was his favourite tutor at
the Malta School of Art and the two artists developed a special bond that went beyond an
ordinary relationship between student and teacher. There was a reversal of this role, fifty
years later, when Arcidiacono tutored Caruana Dingli’s granddaughter, Debbie. Research into Arcidiacono’s early artistic formation revealed an appreciable
amount of interaction between himself and his contemporaries, especially the artists who
shared his enthusiasm for en plein air painting. On investigating possible foreign
influences, it became evident that he rejected an academic approach to painting at an early
stage of his career and his later work shows a certain affinity with French Post-
Expressionism. The influence of the British School of watercolour painters on
Arcidiacono may have been prompted by his encounters with visiting amateur artists such
as Sir Alison Russell and his appreciation of the work of Sir William Russell Flint. In
some of his paintings, he adopts a sparse, linear style that is reminiscent of Edward Lear’s
sketches of Maltese landscape. Although the study is focussed on Arcidiacono as a watercolourist, it includes
some of his paintings in oil and an account of the evolution of style in his furniture designs
over the years. The Modern and Period Furniture Factory, run by the Arcidiacono family
for almost seventy years, is now closed and its premises in Rue d’Argens, Msida are being
used as a store for imported furniture. A search in the apartment above it, which served
as Arcidiacono’s home since the late 1930s, revealed a surprisingly large number of
furniture designs. The artist used to present his designs on large watercolour plates to
individual clients before proceeding to the manufacture of custom-built furniture.
The archives of the Arcidiacono family include a set of photographic albums kept
by the artist as a visual record of his paintings. Visits to the Malta School of Art unearthed
hitherto unknown specimens of his early work. Some of the images from these two souces
have been used to supplement the paintings discovered in private collections to illustrate
Arcidiacono’s work and to compare it with that of other artists. The plates presented at
the end of the study are restricted to works by Arcidiacono and are meant to provide a
selective catalogue of his broad artistic output.
Description: M.A.HIST.OF ART2019-01-01T00:00:00Z‘The secondary arts’: analysing the artistic value of crafts and the decorative arts : re-evaluating their position in the contemporary study of the history of arthttps://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/534862020-04-20T06:24:33Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: ‘The secondary arts’: analysing the artistic value of crafts and the decorative arts : re-evaluating their position in the contemporary study of the history of art
Abstract: Why have the textile arts been consistently belittled throughout recent art history?
During the Renaissance, painters and sculptors tried to distance themselves from other artisans by bringing forth the claim that these so called lesser arts do not require the same intellectual and philosophical capacity as their respective crafts. Most people gradually came to accept this claim, subsequently affecting the way through which a whole bevy of art forms were and still are perceived. But surely to boldly assume that most every single art form that was ever practiced throughout the history of humankind is both a false and sweeping statement. Who is to say that every single every single artist that ever painted or sculpted an artwork throughout the history of the world was automatically more philosophically inclined than anyone who practiced a craft that fell outside these two very distinct art forms.
Many have attempted to eradicate this mindset, to alter it or abandon it all together in favour of a more inclusive, less restrictive evaluation of art appreciation. The conservative art historian is only narrowing their world view, limiting their potential sources of both enjoyment and study by downgrading the value of the cornucopia of different art forms and practices that fall under the hypernym of the textile arts.
The Question of Originality:
A criticism frequently fielded against the textile arts is that many makers depend on pre made patterns to execute their work. But the same can be said of many a painting and sculpture; most of the ancient sculptures that survive are second, fourth or even sixth hand copies of the original art work. However, the art of Ancient Egypt is famously formulaic; its tomb decorations and architectural style remaining comparatively static, changing very little over the civilisation’s millennia long existence.
It is well known that Michelangelo drew inspiration from the impressive frescoes Signorelli executed for the Cathedral of Orvieto; Picasso and the entire wave of modern artists active in Paris during the early 20th Century were in awe of the African wood carvings flooding into Europe during this period, Francis Bacon deliberately referenced the work of earlier masters in his work, most notably being his ‘Study after Velazquez’s Pope Innocent X’ and yet the validity of their respective positions within the Art World are never seriously challenged. If it weren’t for artists drawing inspiration from the world around them and the artists that came before them, the formation of movements would not arise, the impact of an artist’s work might not be as successful or widespread and because so many artworks have been lost over the course of history, we might not even know of the works produced by an artist that have since been lost.
So why is it that many mainstream art critics and historians seemingly appear to use two distinctly different measures to determine the artistic worth of textile arts? Why is it that when a painter or sculptor admits to being inspired by the works of an Earlier creative, their works are celebrated as being well studied and yet when the argument shifts toward the Textile Arts, the use of another master’s work is seen as evidence pointing towards the artist or artisan’s lack of creativity or skill?
This dissertation and project strive to challenge this mindset by showcasing notable examples from throughout the known History of the Textile Arts, analysing the successive cycles of admiration and derision afforded to them throughout history. The primary focus will be on the works of Textile Artists who strove for equality of media in the Art World as well as creators working in disparate, oftentimes hostile environments who turned to specific media out of necessity; creating monumental artworks of varying scale and media worthy of wider spread recognition.
Description: B.A.(HONS)HIST.OF ART - FINE ARTS2019-01-01T00:00:00Z