Caricatures are meant to mock or satirise through exaggeration and distortion, projecting the grotesque in character and behaviour while adding a social comment that doesn’t essentially dehumanise the persons thus portrayed. 

Clyde Haber

In the case of George Grosz and Otto Dix, the social comment goes straight to the heart of the matter. The ‘New Objectivity’ movement of these two German artists focused on the aftermath of World War I, the shortcomings of the Weimar republic and the general decadence that permeated all strata of German society of the 1920s.

French caricaturist Roland Topor relied more on a surrealist take, creating bizarre and monstrous creatures in his satirical outlook. He juxtaposed human beings, animals, plants and other objects in an alternative narrative, much in the spirit of Hieronymus Bosch and Max Ernst, one that still satirised and mocked. 

As one of the founders of the publication Hara-Kiri, which later reinvented itself as Charlie Hebdo, Topor controversially sought to attack taboos via disturbing cartoonish-like caricatures.

Maltese artist and caricaturist Clyde Haber’s paintings in his solo A Typical Day in Valletta are far removed from the negative and sometimes nihilist narrative of the artists previously mentioned. 

Flower Kiosk

His jocular comments about a normal day in Valletta do not intend to criticise; rather, they are heart-warming celebrations of the ordinary at a time when this is so much needed in a post-pandemic netherworld. We ache for structure and for the apparently mundane; the question of which flowers to choose from the flower kiosk in Valletta acquires special significance as lockdowns had deprived us of these innocent chores. The woman in Haber’s Flower Kiosk debates on this as life carelessly and effortlessly flows, lounging cat and all.

St Christopher Street dwells on another common occurrence, a man lusting after a sexy female tourist. Most capital cities, especially Mediterranean ones, are home to these male characters, who dream of driving their model girlfriends in yellow Lamborghinis. In this paining, the man appears riveted, in shyness, to a street corner, unable to make a move and failing to make at least part of his dream come true.

St Christopher Street

Valletta is a place where the citizens, tourists and members of the Maltese population effortlessly interact, brought together by the attractions that our capital city offers. A visitor, going around in the centuries-old streets in search of the casual and the spontaneous, can encounter storylines, weaved as they are from morning till night. The tired, wary-looking man looks at his wife who is having the time of her life as she shops until she, or rather her husband, drops. He takes a moment to catch his breath after lunging around with bagsful of expensive merchandise purchased by his fashion-conscious wife to complement her wardrobe. It seems like a lifetime has passed since he was a single young man without a care in the world. Now he has a wife to take care of and an endless number of bags to carry home.

The Great Siege

Avatars amid cityscapes

The term ‘avatar’ originates from Hinduism and refers to the incarnation of a deity in human or animal form. Along the years, its meaning has been transformed; it has been attributed to people who are at the forefront, like doyens, in their activities. Computer gaming technology has incorporated the term into its jargon, to define an electronically generated image, at times humanoid, that is under the control of a computer-game player. 

Haber invites the viewer to engage with the characters he portrays by becoming one of them and by adopting their personalities and by participating in their daily narratives.  

George Zammit

One can thus see Valletta under different guises – the tourist, the citizen, the shop owner, the customer and maybe even the cat and, therefore, appreciate the idiosyncrasies of different personal biographies amid the contrasts of the towering architecture of palaces from the time of the knights, their auberges, the stepped streets, the glorious cathedral and churches, and the humble houses. How all of this comes together in the stuff of dreams.

"Haber’s exhibition is a joyful, colourful celebration of our capital city and the humanity that passes through it in each and every day"

St George Square

“The paintings combine an element of scenery and also to a certain degree through avatars, some satirical depictions,” Haber remarks. He continues: “The idea of an avatar is that it is a general reference to a figure and then the viewer can fill in the actual person. The concept is to take a quirky and interesting approach towards traditional scenery paintings.”

Queen Victoria

The location of the exhibition, at Hotel Phoenicia, is not without its relevance, straddling the boundary between Valletta and its suburb Floriana. Passing through City Gate, the emblematic entrance to the capital city, one enters this realm where many narratives meet. 

Haber’s exhibition is a joyful, colourful celebration of our capital city and the humanity that passes through it in each and every day. 

“You take delight not in a city’s seven or 70 wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours,” Italo Calvino claims in his novel Invisible Cities. 

Tritoni

The traditional genre of cityscape painting generally gives a static two-dimensional, dehumanised and staged answer to this hypothetical question that Calvino poses. Haber’s series of paintings investigates the bubbling of the cauldron, a city much alive with human life stories, even though at times the most commonplace but endearing ones.

A Typical Day in Valletta, hosted by Hotel Phoenicia, is open until December 31. Consult the event’s Facebook page for visiting hours. COVID-19 restrictions apply.

MEME