In the 13th article in a series on 20th-century artists who shaped Maltese modernism, Joseph Agius reflects on the works of Joseph M. Borg Xuereb.

The name of Joseph M. Borg Xuereb (1928-1996) is generally associated with the early days of modernism in Malta when his abilities at organisation were essential for the proper functioning and the reaching out to the public of the three artist groups of the 1950s.  However, his pedigree as a powerful artist with a distinct voice of his own is often forgotten.

Joseph M. Borg Xuereb (1928-1996)

His penchant for abhorring the limelight contributed to this general Maltese art-historical amnesia as Borg Xuereb was very modest as regards his artistic capabilities. He didn’t actively promote his work like his colleagues used to do notwithstanding some solo exhibitions and his participation in collectives. 

His palette shows a love for expressionism coupled with a thematic language that demonstrated his introspective nature in no uncertain way. His landscapes and streetscapes are almost strictly of Xemxija and Birkirkara, a seaside dreamy village and a bustling town respectively, where his two family homes were located. His paintings are narratives that focus on family and a colourful social life that was defined by the immediate neighbourhood of the two houses, indeed the hearths and homes of his life as a family man.

Stingrays

In the latter decades of the 20th century, Xemxija, a seaside hamlet that nowadays has sadly been absorbed into the modern-day sprawling town of St Paul’s Bay, was a home away from home for Borg Xuereb, his wife, his two sons and his extended family. It offered the laid-back quality that a number of artists last century similarly enjoyed in Cornwall’s St Ives. The brilliant sun, the sea of azure and blue, the marine ecosystems and the vernacular architecture provided enough fodder to stimulate Borg Xuereb to produce his colourful canvases of life, be it human, terrestrial or marine. 

September – Autumn (1986)

Although he celebrated the great outdoors, the art of Borg Xuereb carries a pronounced introspective dimension that portrays the interior struggle that his artistic modesty must have induced in him. He felt comfort in objects intimately close to his two homes – the vernacular and rather claustrophobic architecture of his Birkirkara neighbourhood and the more rural ingredients of a picturesque seaside village amid the surrounding countryside, caressed by the waves and the promise of adventure in the wide-open sea.

This dichotomy, of enclosed versus wide-open spaces, in some way contextualises a perennial existential tussle that from one angle pushed the artist forward in search of an artistic identity that shines through in his oeuvre while, at the same time, shackled him with self-doubt. This, at times, forestalled the development of his artistic career in terms of wider recognition and a more prominent place in Maltese 20th-century art history. 

He loved adventure and, ironically enough, the fact that he didn’t know how to swim didn’t restrict him from embarking on seafaring adventures and fishing trips with his two sons, Hermann and Evander.  This nonchalance and bravado in the face of possible danger imply that he wasn’t a man who shunned circumstances in which slight odds were stacked against him.

Veċċja

He weaved everyday life into his art and it became second nature to his existence. In a way, this could explain his compulsion in refraining from exhibiting. This could have arisen not from a fear that his art wasn’t up to scratch with that of his more extrovert colleagues, although he expressed an opinion regarding this insecurity of his more than once. He wasn’t a man who wouldn’t rise up to meet challenges.

It could have been a reluctance to expose these chapters of his personal life, portrayed through his paintings. He might have thought that such intimate works wouldn’t be interesting to the general art-loving public. His calm and very methodical demeanour came in handy in his career of a teacher of English in a school in Qormi and, for a while, he also taught at the Malta School of Art. He was a master in the technique of batik and was a very proficient graphic artist as well.

He weaved everyday life into his art and it became second nature to his existence

Strangely enough, Borg Xuereb’s pronounced love for literature and books didn’t find a thematic expression through his art. This further bolsters the impression that he painted life as he saw it, as it happened every day and fiction was never part of it. On the endpapers of every book he read, he inscribed his thoughts about that particular book. These mementos poetically document his memories like a diary. When he lent a book, he would ask the person who borrowed the book to write something as well.

Veċċja (inverted)

The utensils, bottles and other implements that figure in his still lifes belong to the kitchens and dining rooms of his two houses. They are self-evident elements that partook in and contributed to simple chores such as cooking and storing food. Just like Giorgio Morandi’s work in this genre, Borg Xuereb remained faithful to the same elements. This further accentuates both artists’ distaste for alternative elements, originating from the world beyond the domiciliary doors.

The reason for this could be a prospective contamination of the spiritual space that encompassed the familiar objects that belong since forever to the household. As such, these objects achieve a kind of ritualistic relevance in the act of cooking and food storing that murmurs at some metaphysical level. The fact that his wife, Maria, was practically his only model further illustrates the Maltese artist’s preoccupation that thematic material should belong to the immediate household and neighbourhood.

Madonna and Child

Orange is a colour that is predominant across Borg Xuereb’s oeuvre. It epitomises the Maltese seasons of summer and early autumn, and probably was a chromatic way in which he registered his feelings of joy for the long days spent with his family in Xemxija and the spirit of community garnered by living with an extended family and friends. Here, he used to meet up with Esprit Barthet (1919-1999), another pioneer of Maltese modernism, to discuss art and down some tots of alcohol which mellowed everything into an orange, caramel hue.

Borg Xuereb had a pronounced aptitude for seeing figures and shapes hiding in things, even in the wicker curtains that provided shade from the glaring Mediterranean sun and kept annoying insects at bay. These curtains are quite fragile and can easily break, which provided, when they did so, more material for his artistic sensibility to decipher shapes and forms. 

He used to claim that every person has the ability to draw; he encouraged people to scribble lines, to take a step back, discover what lurks amid the apparent chaos and give it substance by summoning it out from its shadows. He loved the sense of community while creating and he used to involve all family members, from his wife and his sister-in-law, who were artists in their own right, as well as his children and their friends. However, he loathed children’s colouring books as he felt that colouring between the lines hindered any nascent artistic talent of the child.

Still-life

When one surveys Borg Xuereb’s extensive oeuvre, one notices the layering technique he used to employ in his work. Sometimes this occurred through the weave of repetitive organic and biomorphic motifs as well as geometric patterns. Themes sometimes overlap as well and merge into a composition that nods towards abstraction. One can be casually reminded of the work of French surrealist artist André Masson (1896-1987), who similarly metamorphosed anthropomorphic and biomorphic forms which he eventually developed into almost non-representative tapestries.

Through these particular works, Borg Xuereb, through an act of stratigraphical concealment, invites us to peel away the layers that constitute the visual narrative. This technique, which is his defining fingerprint, conceptually contributes to this self-concealment that was the Maltese artist’s essence and which one might interpret as a very valid and unique artistic statement.

The words of American author Henry Miller could be the Maltese artist’s own: “I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

And Borg Xuereb would have included his immediate family and close friends too in the equation.

The series will continue next month.