Maltese artists in Rome, 1930-1940

Abstract

This dissertation, based on documentary research in Rome and Malta, proposes to explore the individual reactions of Roman-trained and certain other related Maltese artists around the 1930's to contemporary or dated Modernist trends, also coloured by the reactions of their teachers to these movements. It shall discuss to what extent they assimilated this influence and, finally, how this determined their future development in post-War Malta. The presumed Modernist influence - or lack of it - can sometimes be proven by direct evidence or, on several occasions, by analogy through the probability of the Maltese Artists' being exposed to it.