What is the function of art? And what do you give to someone who is asking that same question?
Well – those are two eternal questions. Yet they might have the same answer because one of the functions of art is to explore, understand and interpret the world. And what better present than the opportunity for an art lover to inquire their surroundings?
That opportunity comes in the form of a 336-page tome, featuring over 500 illustrations by artists Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra.
The book – The Life and Work of Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra: Their Creative Partnership, by Joseph Paul Cassar – is a celebration of the couple’s life and works.
Wirth (1923-2010) was greatly influenced by the Libyan cuture, while Cavarra (1926-1978) dedicated her attentions to painting and documenting in watercolour a scientific approach to Maltese flora.
The two – who both attended the Government School of Art from 1946 to 1951, met at school and married in 1952. In September 1951, Wirth travelled to Tripoli to work for Barclays Bank DCO, where he spent 18 years – Cavarra joined him one year later.
Wirth found Tripoli an exotic and interesting place – he was influenced by the Libyan culture and dedicated most of his free time to painting Zakkara dancers, the Roman ruins of Sabratha and Leptis Magna, museum pieces, arches, streets and market scenes, in various mediums, including collage and scrapper-board. In the Libyan capital, In Tripoli he exhibited annually in the Barclays Bank and Società Dante Alighieri art exhibitions, receiving a gold medal.
The couple left Libya in 1969 and returned to Malta where they resumed their quiet lives, engrossed in their relationship and love of painting and drawing. Wirth painted mostly the open countryside which he explored on his wanderings. His favourite locations – which he painted in oil, watercolour, pen and ink, pastel, pencil – were St Julian’s Bay, Valletta, Buskett, Dingli cliffs and various country roads with wayside chapels.
Cavarra produced what can best be described as a compendium of Malta’s flora – with an exquisite precision and detail. She painted a collection of over 380 wild flowers in watercolour, leaving documentation of the 1970s Malta flora, which she explored during country outings with the Natural History Society.
When Cavarra passed, her husband left Barclays and started keeping a diary, with the entries listing all his and his wife’s paintings in detail.
The Life and Work of Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra: Their Creative Partnership embodies the work of these two artists, who wrote an important chapter in the history of local modern art.
This creative partnership is celebrated by the couple’s daughter Mariz Cassar Wirth Cavarra, a ceramist and painter – who to continue her parents’ legacy, is organising a series of upcoming exhibitions, where the works of Wirth and Cavarra will be showcased in Valletta palazzinos and wine bars.
Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra’s art also lives on through artistic cards for various occasions, also available, featuring the couple’s artworks. Gift packs including unique local heritage, are also available.
For further details on the purchase of book (336 pp, over 500 illustrations), contact marizcassar54@gmail.com, 2144 2468/7944 2468/9982 8490 (including WhatsApp). The book is also available from Agenda Bookstores and BDL.
For further details on how to purchase The Life and Work of Lewis Wirth and Helen Cavarra: Their Creative Partnership contact marizcassar54@gmail.com, 2144 2468 / 7944 2468 / 9982 8490.