Two generations of Maltese artistic families - Antoine & Antoine Paul Camilleri, Aldo & Nadine Micallef-Grimaud

Abstract

Two Generations of Maltese Artistic Families is a new, three-year project which APS Bank is undertaking throughout 2014-2016. This initiative records and evaluates the contribution of six pairs of Maltese artists, related by family, who were active from the 1930’s to date. In the process, it narrates the political, social and economic environment in which these artists grew up and highlights the inter-relationships between these milieus and the artists’ sensitivity and response in their respective artistic works. Several contributors will be sharing their views in the three publications that are planned to complement the three annual exhibitions portraying the works of four artists at a time. The project is an extension of the three-year cycle that brought together twelve Maltese artists, of whom one had a long track record of works and exhibitions in one or more media, and the others represented the upcoming generations. It proved to be a successful initiative which combined both an effective way of presentation of the works involved and a series of essays that addressed the relationships between the artists and their studio environment, native art and novel idioms introduced to express their moods and reactions to the events and the various types of phenomena occurring around us. Both projects are based on two guiding principles that inspire the contribution of APS Bank to the cultural sector. First, we strive to complement the activities carried out by other entities. In this way, we expand the array of experiences which all those who visit the art exhibitions can go through. The Bank does support, in part, individual artists with their one-person exhibitions. We also give financial backing to collective projects. But, when it comes to undertake a new task we seek to widen the scope of the presentation and analysis. The project at hand seeks to identify the influence that parent-artists may have on their children or, put differently, how the upcoming members of a family react to the way in which a parent presents art as a mode of self-expression, a reaction to the outer world coming from a long search of the inner self. To start this meditative, artistic journey, we are presenting the experience and works of four artists: Antoine Camilleri and his son Antoine Paul, and Aldo Micallef-Grimaud and his daughter Nadine.