Euclid defines the line as a “breathless length”. The line cuts through and defines the limits and boundaries of things in existence, whether a line of text or a horizon, emerging from a point and extending infinitely.

The line in the creative endeavour is an infinite extension emerging from the artist, whether as lines of text, waves of sound or lines mapping our darting eyes, meandering across space and time in artworks that are the site of their own definition. 

Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti’s latest exhibition In Search of Line, gathering works from public and private collections, traces the line across its many manifestations.

LZ: What can you tell us of the works to be exhibited and how they entangle with the concept of line? 

SC: When talking about line, especially when seeking to articu­late such a vast concept within the context of a visual narrative (an exhibition), it is hard not to begin with definitions. Euclid was certainly one of the most important references in my research, as was Paul Klee, Kandinksy and Tim Ingold, to name a few.

Diana by Ġorġ Borg. Photo: Lisa Attard

However, this exhibition also began for me with ideas and experiences of line explored through conversation, conversations with art historians, anthropologists, philosophers, artists, dancers, and friends. It is, in fact, one of the main reasons why the exhibition is titled in the way that it is. The ‘in search of’ is, after all, an open invitation, an initiation to come not as a passive witness but for a collaboration in the investigation of this theme, that of line.

Throughout the four years of research leading up to this exhibition, and as is customary with a FPM exhibition, the process involved many visits to public and private collections, engaging and discussing the concept with institutions, academics and collectors.

The exhibition begins with a nod towards the past, the drawings and sketches of the old masters, using the line to measure proportion, map out larger projects or simply articu­late a thought or feeling.

From there, we quickly move into the modern period, weaving the same intentions but with somewhat unknown early works by names like Alfred Chircop, Toni Pace and others.

Gabriel Caruana (1929-2018), Untitled 2. Photo: Peter Bartolo Parnis

Line is also explored within the sketchbooks of a selected few. Sketchbooks contain lines as traces of unfinished thoughts, traces of the artist’s mind at work as they attempt to develop ideas and solve problems. Moreover, once this foundation of the line drawn on paper is established, the exhibition swiftly moves onto other, perhaps more challenging notions of the line, like the acts made to create them and the memories imprinted once they are in motion.

The exhibition sees the collaboration with contemporary artists who were invited to engage with various aspects of the curatorial narrative. Collaboration is key in order to further articulate what is considered heritage and patrimony through new perspectives and ideas, all the more adding to their relevance. 

Matthew Attard was invited to engage with Antonio Sciortino’s large unrealised project of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. Articulating one of the exhibition’s concepts ­− that of the ‘line of sight’, Attard’s process constituted of drawing with an eye-tracker. 

Contours by Frank Portelli (1922-2004). Photo: Lisa Attard

Furthermore, within a contained sound-cube dedicated almost entirely to Victor Pasmore’s Linear Symphonies, we collaborated with Christian Galea to create a soundscape which primarily explores what it means to ‘abstract’ from nature, just like Pasmore did.

The project also sees the crea­tion of an exhibition catalogue that includes reflective writings by Richard England, Vince Briffa, Michael Zammit, Matthew Attard, Giulia Privi­telli and Robert Brewer Young. Both within and outside the three-dimensional space of this new gallery, line extends via sound and memory and materialises through invention, gesture and movement.

The exhibition begins with a nod towards the past, the drawings and sketches of the old masters, using the line to measure proportion, map out larger projects or simply articulate a thought or feeling

LZ: Martha Graham says a dancer’s spine is “a line connecting heaven and earth”. While the line cuts and separates, it also serves to connect and gather. What are some of the most striking aspects of line that are explored in this exhibition? Are polarities observed or more so a connecting thread? 

SC: The line is one of art’s greatest subjects of exploration. Its open nature, complexity and radical transformation have seen the often-unobserved medium create an infinite number of works of art.

Both on the page as well as into time and space, the line has manifested itself in many ways, from drawing to weaving, writing, singing and storytelling. Up to this day, artists question and challenge the line, its meaning and representation, its linearity and culture.

The exhibition encounters the line via three curatorial points, that of invention, gesture and movement.

Untitled, 1975, by Josef Kalleya (1898-1998)

The intention was to create a harmony of threads woven, but cracks of polarity also opened – the form and formlessness, linear and non-linear, obedient and disobedient line.

In terms of narrative, the exhibition flows from what we’ve called the line of invention – the line characterised and linked to artistic thought. To invent is to draw and to draw is to act in and around time.

From invention comes the gesture, the action as the focus point, the act of making lines – the scratch, marked, broken line.

And finally, we cannot talk about action without acknowledging movement. In movement we introduce the elements of time and space. The former elicits music and sound while the latter takes us into three dimensions: architecture, energy and velocity made visible.

In essence, there is both something classical and pure when speaking about the line, the imagination, aspiration, formulation of an idea, or even in the search of a line, that in itself disrupts the earth-bound tension to the physicality of making lines, something you ultimately need a tool to create, to carve something out or in, something that has its own violence and creative potential.

Mtaħleb, 1991, by Alfred Chircop. Photo: Lisa Attard

LZ: The exhibition In Search of Line will mark the opening of the new gallery to house a permanent collection of Victor Pasmore’s works. What can you tell us of this new gallery and what it might have in store?

SC: In 2021, APS entered into an agreement with Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti to transform their old headquarters into a state-of-the-art gallery which would house the Victor Pasmore collection.

This collection, entrusted to Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, covers a wide range of Pasmore’s creations and preferred media, including drawings, reliefs and spray paintings, constructions, prints and composite works.

The dawn of the 20th century saw many social, political and artistic changes on the island. However, due to the lack of proper exhibition spaces for Maltese artists until the 1950s, and a limited art market, many artists remained unappreciated.

FPM’s new premises will therefore dedicate its second gallery floor to this Maltese modern art movement where a series of small exhibitions will be organised and curated with the aim of promoting various aspects of these artists’ work. 

In Search of Line is open until January 14, 2024, at the Victor Pasmore Gallery, APS House, 275, St Paul Street, Valletta. For more information, visit victorpasmoregallery.com.