Pioneers Of Modern Art In Malta Volume 2 By Joseph Paul Cassar

‘Joseph Paul Cassar can be assured that he has joined the select band of seasoned professional researchers through the extensive searches undertaken as a prelude to compiling these volumes. Cassar shares his detective work with us, his peregrinations, discussions and interviews. We see him uncovering clues – handling a dusty painting, finding a set of drawings, listening to an elderly painter reminisce, reading the minutes of art group meetings, sifting through faded catalogues, photographs and newspaper cuttings and deciphering scribbled notes. Mainly covering the middle decades of the 20th century and dealing with seminal figures involved in modern art as developed through the islands of Malta, Cassar’s material is extraordinary and impressive. What he has mustered opens up political, religious and social dimensions of a rapidly changing 20th century Maltese diaspora and crucially provides insights into the global cultural dimension that was 20th century modern art. Malta evolved a similarly global maturity. From being a protected member of the British Empire as Queen Victoria entered her final Sovereign year, the island became an independent country and full member of the European Union of Nations, as a new Millennium offered re-defined global tensions and hopes. In these volumes modern Maltese artists come alive. We view their work, supporting documents, photographic records and their personal reflections, disagreements, iniatives and aspirations. Just as Cassar makes them come alive he allows us also to come alive. He does not blind us with jargon or suffocate us with indigestible material, but leads us carefully and clearly on an adventure’ – Steve Blundell, Birmingham City University, UK