For the man in the street with some knowledge of Maltese art, Emvin Cremona’s name is synonymous with church commissions that are generally easy on the eye. Some believe that this commonly held perception detracts from Cremona’s position as one of the Maltese pioneers of Maltese modernism.  Mark Sagona, visual artist and resident academic at the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta, discussed with Joseph Agius the varied aspects of Cremona’s outstanding oeuvre and the dedicated retrospective exhibition currently on at Il-Ħaġar Museum in Victoria.

Untitled Landscape. Photo: Charles Paul Azzopardi

Emvin Cremona occupies a most prominent place in the development of art in our churches during three decades of the 20th century.

Giuseppe Calì and Lazzaro Pisani enjoyed the lion share of these commissions in the early decades of last century. The vacuum created by their demise was filled in by a number of artists including Giuseppe Briffa and Gianni Vella.

The death of Anton Inglott in 1945 deprived our country of a unique artist who raised the bar through the otherworldly aura of sobriety, asceticism and spirituality that permeates one of the exceptional masterpieces of Maltese 20th century Church art, The Death of St Joseph, at Msida parish church.

Inglott’s untimely death and the decision by the ecclesiastical authorities to commission Cremona, Inglott’s best friend, to continue working at the Msida parish church can be considered as the springboard for Cremona’s career as commissions by the Church authorities poured in.

Composizione. XXIX Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte di Venezia 1958 (Biennale). Photo: Charles Paul Azzopardi

“The two laterals in the choir at the Msida parish church are very elegant works; however, Cremona does not possess the same inherent spirituality that was an Inglott fingerprint. Cremona is more decorative.  This can also be seen through a juxtaposition of the two Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.  The solemn, almost Byzantine spiritual aura in Inglott’s work is replaced by a more decorative aesthetic in Cremona’s interpretation,” Mark Sagona points out.

“The church commissions are in the public eye – there are other facets of Cremona that clearly show his creative prowess and celebrate him as an artist of outstanding qualities who engaged with the avantgarde.

“The artist tried to promote new ideas for church decoration but he was constantly shackled by the ecclesiastical authorities.  He therefore had to reach a compromise, which is nonetheless innovative.  This is particularly evident in his 1960s and 1970s work for several churches in Malta and Gozo which succeeded to inject Maltese sacred art with a dose of modernity.”

His greatest contributions to our country’s 20th-century art history are those of an experimental nature, many of them exercises in abstraction

He continues: “The influences of Edward Caruana Dingli, the head of the Malta School of Art, as well as that of Carlo Siviero, the professor of painting at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, where Cremona studied between 1938 and 1940, helped him develop his early style.  However, while in Rome, Cremona was surely exposed to the work of Italian  artist Mario Sironi, whose monumental decorative works with stylised, immobile figures seem to echo in Cremona’s works. 

Bozzetto of the Crucifixion for the Fatima Church, Guardamangia. Photo: Charles Paul Azzopardi

“One must also mention the art deco decorative influence of Jean-Theodore Dupas, one of the pioneers of the art deco movement.  Cremona was Dupas’s student while pursuing his studies at the École Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 1946. The elongation and stylisation of his figures originates from there.”

The Maltese Church authorities did not look favourably on the sacred art produced by Cremona’s colleagues, such as Josef Kalleya, Carmelo Mangion, Giorgio Preca and Antoine Camilleri. Preca’s ‘modern’ altarpiece for the Stella Maris parish church was removed and eventually banished to a wayside chapel in Żejtun. Kalleya, Mangion and Camilleri were regarded with diffidence, a pity as their studio sacred art demonstrated a much-heightened spiritual sensitivity. Our country lost out on a legacy of valid church art.

Sagona says there are other aspects of Cremona’s art that are more important than his church art.

“His greatest contributions to our country’s 20th-century art history are those of an experimental nature which are ironically of a more spiritual nature, many of them exercises in abstraction. He embarked on a journey of artistic reinvention, particularly in the 1950s and 60s.  One must mention his impastos, his abstracts, the works known as the Broken Glass series; all of these drew on influences originating from global and contemporary artistic developments.”

Sagona mentions Cremona’s engagement with art informel and the work of Antoni Tàpies and Alberto Burri, the gestural abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Wilhelm de Kooning and Mark Rothko, the tachism of Jean Fautrier, the broken mirrors of the arte povera artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and the spazialismo concept of Lucio Fontana. 

“In the use of new materials such as glass, plaster, gravel, cloth, ropes, smoke, and in his dialogue with the materiality of art, Cremona has succeeded in bringing Malta much closer to the context of the international avantgarde. These works, which he embarked upon in the 1950s and 60s, demonstrate a stronger spiritual component than that in any of his commissioned church art,” Sagona points out.

Bathers. Photo: Joe Attard

He adds: “Cremona is documented as saying that his commissioned church art was not a serious artistic contribution. Probably he maintained this because he was being censored relentlessly by the church authorities. He felt that his artistic sensibility was curtailed through these commissions and that he was negated the freedom to take religious themes to new directions.  In an article I had published in Treasures of Malta in 2008, I pointed out that there is a distinct evolution in his sacred work – there is no formula repeated ad infinitum; there is a progression.” 

Sagona adds that Cremona wasn’t ready to lose the church commissions that were his livelihood. Therefore, he refrained from being a member of the 1950s artist groups that ushered in modernism in Malta as that would have branded him and would have impacted his monopoly on church commissions. A late circa 1985 Crucifixion exhibited in this retrospective demonstrates a striking spiritual depth, accentuating the fact that official church commissions deprived him of a radiant ascetic sensibility.

This retrospective also investigates the decorative and design abilities of Cremona, especially in his philatelic work. Cremona was also a muralist and was commissioned to design interiors, theatres and wrought iron structures. His work in churches was not limited to ceiling decorations. He also produced items of church furniture such as the altar of the Nadur parish church and for interior decoration, as is the case of the Ħamrun parish church.

Crucifixion ca 1985. Photo: Family Cremona

The decorative spirit is evident throughout Cremona’s oeuvre. Balance and elegance of his line come to the fore in his philatelic output, and in his gouache and pen and ink works on paper featuring bishops, knights, churches, processions, the sun itself besides other elements; indeed a historical narrative of our country.

Decoration and spirituality are the two main overriding characteristic features of Cremona’s art, qualities which are amply demonstrated throughout his artistic career. This is the main point of discussion in an article written by Sagona for the exhibition catalogue.

The death of Cremona and Giuseppe Briffa in the 1980s curtailed the development of church art as, with some rare exceptions, there was an unfortunate push for an anachronistic and conservative aesthetic influenced by our rich baroque legacy, the realism of Giuseppe Calì and a penchant for outdated chiaroscuro excesses. 

“Cremona has not been studied in toto; he hasn’t been thoroughly analysed yet. This exhibition goes some way towards the full and better understanding of the artist. There are about one hundred pieces in this retrospective, covering most of his career and featuring all the facets of his impressive artistic production, from sketches to paintings, from bozzettos to full-scale religious works, from semi-abstracts to full-blown abstracts and more experimental works, including original brochures, documents and the artist’s own palette.  This is a must-see for the art-loving public,” Sagona concludes.

It is remarkable that Il-Ħaġar Museum has managed to organise such a retrospective, honouring one of the pioneers of Maltese modernism. It is hoped that the success of this exhibition will encourage the organisers to embark on similar projects that will celebrate the great Maltese artists of the 20th century; artists who, like Cremona, harboured a modernist sensibility that propelled the art of our country to pastures new.

Emvin Cremona 1919-1987 is open until August 29 at Il-Ħaġar | Heart of Gozo Museum and Cultural Centre, Pjazza San Ġorġ, Victoria. Opening hours are from 9am to 5pm daily. The exhibition catalogue, which is the 12th in the GEMS series issued by Il-Ħaġar can be acquired against a donation of €15 at the museum or by request on info@heartofgozo.org.mt.