An annotated checklist of articles and features of art historical interest in the ‘Sunday Times of Malta’ between 1945 and 1955

Abstract

This thesis attempts to critically assess the nature of exposure provided to artistic and m1 historical matters in one of the most prominent newspaper chronicles on the Maltese Islands. ‘The Sunday Times of Malta’ has been a vehicle for the expansion of local art criticism throughout the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, such a phenomenon experienced a unique formation, and was moulded by various criteria which presented themselves throughout the ages. Such criteria are discussed in this thesis, taking the years between 1945 and 1955 as the focus of attention. The thesis forms part of a series of three dissertation studies which develop this particular survey, and which goes on to analyse the growth of art criticism in ‘The Sunday Times of Malta’ until the late l 970's. This thesis is divided into two main sections, the first being a critical thesis on the nature, evolution, and characteristics of reporting pertaining to art historical matters in the paper between 1945 and 1955. The second section is a gazetteer, which catalogues each report, article, or feature found in the newspaper relevant to artistic matters, and serves as a synoptic reference to the corpus of writings published during the years under study. The thesis is divided into four chapters which are in turn separated into thematic arguments which seek to unearth the most significant features which came to light upon the reviewing of the material in question. The first chapter in the thesis discusses the treatment of national and international matters pertaining to an artistic theme. The ways in which the editorial policy of ‘The Sunday Times of Malta’ treated local issues in contrast with international ones will be under examination; tackling the problem of percentage of coverage in each case. The second chapter will expand from the first, creating a study in the manner of reporting of local artistic matters. This chapter will also deal with significant artistic events which were not reported in the paper between 1945 and 1955. The third chapter in the thesis will examine the issue of articles and features pertaining to local artistic matters of a pre-historic nature. The discussion will centre on the reasoning for- such publications, as well as the characteristics and critical features of such reports. The fourth chapter will focus on the most prominent issue presented by the paper in this decade: the urban re-planning of the island. This will be studied in terms of the significance of the publication of such articles, as well as the prominence given to this specific area.