Wassily Kandinsky claimed that “the force that propels the human spirit on the clear way forward and upward is the abstract spirit”. These words by the father of abstraction define Gerald-John Micallef’s creative mind frame for his collection of 17 abstracts, titled 16+1, which were meant to be exhibited last June. However, current circumstances didn’t permit. 

He Who Was Seated on the Throne Said: ‘I Am Making Everything New!’ (Revelation 21:5)

His 2018 exhibition titled Thoughtology delved into the myriad associations that the artist harnessed from literature, theology, philosophy and psychology. This new collection explores similar subject matter that, together with random thoughts resulting from his daily experiences, merge into a continuum of emotions and sensations. From these, he gleans ideas that he pictorially translates into abstract compositions. Through balance and colour, he propagates personal sentiments that are more adequately expressed as non-representational parcels of spiritual existence.

Micallef believes that this collection is the next milestone in his artistic development.

Jesus Revealed the Face of God That Bothered Society Profoundly! (Carlos Mesters)

“In Thoughtology, I used mixed media whereas oil on canvas is my medium of choice for these 17 paintings. I was after a texture, a lustre that sometimes gives way to opacity and a materic dimension that is complementary. All this worked symbiotically to enhance contrast. The use of more vibrant colours contributed to this as well. I was after a tangible and tactile quality that gives volume and substance to abstract concepts,” he says.

The choice of particular colours is not haphazard. There is an entrenched chromatic symbolism which Micallef contextually weaves into the narrative.

“I use a lot of blue which symbolises the divine. White suggests light and hope, even when used sparingly.”

The quotations, from literary and biblical sources, that accompany each painting behave like a template to the artist’s creative process; one which assimilates diverse stimuli and resolves them as accretions and conglomerations. These quotations, in fact, are the actual titles of the paintings.

Besides having studied philosophy during his days as a theology student, Micallef is very well read and has written over 300 poems, covering over 35 years of his life, which he one day intends to publish as an anthology. He discovers meaning and direction through different sources and he integrates this abundance of information in his expression.

I Existed From All Eternity and, Behold, I Am Here; and I Shall Exist Till the End of Time, For My Being Has No End. (Kahlil Gibran)

He affirms that John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart provided him with a vision, maybe a necessity to take a step back and evaluate what lies at the bottom of his heart. 

“Eldredge defines the Christian as a lion that cannot be imprisoned or shackled. Through abstract art, I feel that I break from the tethers of the representational and my spirit is free to roam,” he notes.

“My artistic origins lie in sacred iconography where geometry and technical perfection are key. Mistakes are frowned upon and there is no space for adventures and experimentation. However, this technical rigidity endowed me with discipline which wasn’t lost when I decided to venture into abstraction.”

Besides veteran artist Raymond Pitré, Micallef holds the late Maltese abstract artist Philip Chircop in high esteem. Chircop was also deeply interested in psychology, physics, religion, biology and natural phenomena and, just like Micallef’s case, this seeped into his abstract art. To use Kandinsky’s words, he trained not only his eye but also his soul. This is what elevates both Maltese artists’ works to a spiritual dimension.

Micallef is very well read and has written over 300 poems, covering over 35 years of his life

The Best Way to Keep a Person From Escaping Is to Make Sure He Never Knows He’s in Prison (Fyodor Dostoevsky) demonstrates a Clyfford Still abstract expressionist sensibility. The dramatic contrasts of the blue jagged, vertical forms amid the field of yellow indicates a tight fit between the two colours.

An abstract painting can be read in a number of ways; turning it upside down reverses the narrative. The distribution of the two colours in this painting is controlled and evokes clenched jaws that shut tightly, thus prohibiting freedom through the banishment of other colours.

In the Beginning … God Created the Heavens and the Earth. Genesis 1:1)

This work perhaps illustrates the artist’s existential dilemma as a form of intellectual imprisonment that goes beyond perspective. The realisation that there is no effective way out of  the suffocating commonplace constitutes a prison in itself.

“Recently, I have been inspired by Carl Jung’s ideas on expression of perceptions and thoughts via a visual language. Thinking and overthinking are my second nature. However, it is very difficult to express myself and to transmit my emotions as explanatory elements even through an abstract composition. I’m not after the faithful representation of a vase of flowers on a table,” Micallef continues.

The painting In the Beginning… God Created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1) evokes J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ainulindalë, an account of creation through music. Micallef’s ‘genesis’ is through viscous colour as life rushes through the ellipsoid, symbolising earth. The godlike dark blue permeates the composition and breathes life into it. This painting is a hymn celebrating the beauty of creation, a polyphonic orchestration of the spheres. One shouldn’t forget that Micallef is also an accomplished musician. 

The composition of He Who Was Seated on the Throne said:‘I Am Making Everything New!’ (Revelation 21:5) is pregnant with impending finality as the divine blue threatens to overcome the whole of creation without distinction of good from bad. The regeneration encompasses everything, all creation, as the spirit reveals itself, seeps in rivulets and threatens to dominate over all colours, even over the hopeful yellow and the harmonious green. 

The two above-mentioned paintings complement each other as a universal statement on the cosmogony of chaos and cosmos. Scientists claim that a singularity spewed out all matter at the beginning of time. Micallef hints at this in the first painting of this pair as material fluxes and flows from a point outside the confines of the artwork. 

Jesus Revealed the Face of God that Bothered Society Profoundly! (Carlos Mesters) evokes Jean Fautrier’s series of paintings Head of a Hostage in the reduction of facial features. This powerful Micallef painting plays on its title’s semiotics that suggest a path towards a figurative interpretation. 

The anonymous and featureless heads of the French artist were inspired by the brutal excesses of the Nazi criminals. Thematically, this contrasts sharply with the Maltese artist’s intimate reflections on theological conundrums. The red and black that dominate the abstracted cranium are disorientating as they are not colours usually associated with divinity. Micallef maybe polemically hints that God defies categorisations. It is this face of God that Jesus revealed, a deformed face in which gold, blue and white are purposely left out.

Swirls, scribbles, cross hatching and reapplication of pigment in a style reminiscent of Hans Hartung characterise two paintings which can be regarded as a pair. Both have Khalil Gibran references in their titles and, in both, the artist hesitated, erased, retraced his steps, concealed and expected. Hartung postulated that: “One must never forbid oneself anything. One must also be able to go back, one must always be able to change.”

Art, as Gibran proclaimed, doesn’t follow the obvious but is a process of discovery as Micallef proposes in Art is a Step From What is Obvious and Well-known Toward What is Arcane and Concealed  (Kahlil Gibran).

The frenzied particles, indicative of electrons and orbitals, threaten the compositions with chaos and agitation. They oscillate with the presentiment of possible disintegration, especially in I Existed From All Eternity and, Behold, I Am Here; and I Shall Exist Till the End of Time, For My Being Has No End (Kahlil Gibran).

Micallef’s abstract art is a fleeting inkling, a whispered intimation; this flux, this perpetual background noise is perhaps what god is all about.