A few years ago, I received an e-mail from Godwin Cutajar, a person I did not know. He was interested in self-portraits and had read something I had written about the subject which interested him. He told me that he was an artist and that he had been exploring self-portraiture. Due to my keen interest in the subject, I agreed to meet him in Gozo, where he lives, and was deeply impressed with what awaited me.
Godwin had explored his own identity over a number of years, depicting his image in various forms and different compositions. Very few artists in Malta, other than perhaps, Antoine Camilleri and Anthony Calleja, have given self-portraiture so much of an interest take.
selfportrait03 (2015)But here I found an artist who was not interested in depicting himself in the normal poses we have become accustomed to seeing in this genre. Godwin had a huge high-ceilinged room filled with portraits three levels deep. I was fascinated by their quality and their inventiveness. They are certainly not more of the same, unique and expertly executed.
While all of the self-portraits show the facial features of the artist in one way or another, they are also autobiographical, but not in the sense of showing a particular event that the artist was involved in.
Unlike Camilleri or Calleja, these paintings do not show the artist in a particular celebration or tragic event of his life. He depicts intelligently and in a subtle manner his inner feelings and traumas and, in some of his latter paintings, his professional work as a restorer with his canvases having been ripped or raptured in the process of execution and before they leave his studio. Whether that is just a means of saying this is what I do as a profession or whether he is sending us a different message is for the viewer to decipher.
selfportrait11 (2016)Most of the works, particularly the more the artist explored the subject, became even more abstracted and abstract. The artist has immersed himself in this subject so much that he has virtually devoted himself to this genre for the last 10 years or so.
Godwin had explored his own identity, over a number of years, depicting his image in various forms and different compositions
The deformed facial expressions and the silent screams coming out of the wide gaping mouth could not but remind me of Edvard Munch’s Scream. His upside-down compositions are also a rather uncommon feature for Maltese art in self-portraiture.
selfportrait14 (2016)I am particularly attracted to his series of stripped or, dare I say, shredded self-portraits in which Godwin paints himself several times on the same painting but from different angles in a stripped format. His penetrating look towards the viewer with his wide-open staring eye or eyes, or his contemplating shut eyes looking just the same at you, cannot but hit you and leave their impression. As does his scruffy and unkempt hairstyle which he purposely leaves uncut.
I am proud to have proposed to the gallerist Rosanna Ciliberti to go and have a look at these paintings and to consider offering him an exhibition. These works I believe are worth forming part of some of the best collections on the island, including the national collection.
selfportrait18 (2017)
selfportrait23 (2020)
selfportrait27 (2021)
Godwin is an unassuming person, keeps a low profile and is devoid of any self-promotion which today unfortunately gets you nowhere. However, he is technically an accomplished artist and has years of sound baggage in his professional career to boast about, even if he normally keeps it hidden away to himself, as his self-portraits do keep away his story from the viewers. This is certainly an exhibition not to be missed.
‘Godwin Is’, An Anthology of Self Portraits by Godwin Cutajar, is open at Art by the Seaside gallery in Senglea until the end of July.