An exhibition about to open at the Casino Notabile in Rabat features the works of two young artists, who despite a 20-year age gap, converse in the same artistic language as their art conceptually complements one another’s.

Mark Muscat with his painting Il-Frontispizju tal-Knisja tan-Naxxar

In The Way to Realism, Mark Muscat explores the architecture of our country, while Francesca Attard shows a considerable sensitivity in portraiture.

Both artists are hyperrealists and demonstrate a superb technical dexterity. They excel in making the real more real by bringing out defining characteristics to the fore and focusing on each nook and cranny, on particular idiosyncrasies, and thus empower the paintings with more narrative quality.

Mark Muscat and Maltese architecture

Mark Muscat (b. 1982) had his first solo exhibition at 18 years of age, followed by another one earlier this year. This time, he is exhibiting a series of paintings that focus on architectural details of well-known Maltese monuments through a perspective that zooms the viewer in towards fine elements in the architecture that otherwise would not be visible from a ground-level viewpoint.

An Angel on Ponte Sant’ Angelo by Mark Muscat

He uses two different palettes, one which is restrained chromati­cally into shades of grey and the other that glows in golden ochre.

The former suggests incident bright light amid an overcast sky; while the other reproduces the golden hue in which our na­tional monuments, such as the Mdina Cathedral and the Mosta basilica, are shrouded during the night.

Muscat increases the drama of the architecture through the first palette choice. The chiaroscuro sharpens the architectural features and gives the whole composition a sense of more focused volume. The same technique is used in Muscat’s painting An Angel on Ponte Sant’ Angelo, in which drama is added, making the angel’s robe, the locks on the forehead and the individual feathers of the wings stand out as if in high relief.

Il-Bażilika tal-Mosta by Mark Muscat

Muscat’s other palette, in which golden ochre dominates, instils a sense of grandeur to the architecture portrayed. In Il-Bażilika tal-Mosta, twin lightning bolts incise the night sky. One of these bolts appears to hit the dome, which is outside the field of view and gives an impression that the bolt has redefined the axis of the whole structure. The artist brings out the majesty of the architecture that glows in the artificial light that enhances public monuments.

However, the twin bolts add to the dramatic narrative of the painting. The composition is disconcerting as Muscat angles the perspective precariously and eliminates most of the architecture to give more prominence to the velvety purple night sky torn apart by the powerful meteorological phenomenon.

In Luminarja, the Mdina skyline has often been interpreted by numerous Maltese and foreign artists. It stands as a majestic bastion of our history. Muscat has used the golden ochre palette that imbues the old city with a charm that enhances its mystique. The pitch black of the foreground and that of the sky complement each other and the city seems to magically float in nothingness.

Luminarja by Mark Muscat

Muscat is also interested in portraying the deterioration that affects the native limestone that is the material of these monuments. His focus on the intimate details of the architecture reveals the steady passage of time as the slow and consistent decay takes its toll even on apparently timeless structures.

Francesca Attard and human architecture

Self Portrait by Francesca Attard

Francesca Attard (b. 2002), 20 years younger than Muscat, shows impressive abilities at depicting the facial human architecture of wrinkles and furrows. Her portrayals of Padre Pio and Mother Teresa honestly capture the spirit and sincerity of the two personages.

Like Muscat, she employs a monochromatic palette that eliminates all colour that might have otherwise reduced the introspective intensity of the two portraits. The furrows in Mother Teresa’s face are repeated in her habit and her hands, thus crea­ting a rhythm that flows longitudinally through the artwork.

Like Muscat, Attard is interested in deterioration as a factor of the passage of time. In her case, it is the decline, loss of suppleness and gradual decay of the human skin and the crumbling of the architecture of the human body.

Attard’s self-portrait is an exercise in technical bravura and sensitivity. She defiantly looks out towards us, towards the whole world, with a pencil, one of the tools of her trade, clasped between her fingers. One’s gaze tends to go towards her hands. This was probably an intentional statement as, according to many artists, the fingers and hands are the most difficult parts of the body to reproduce in an artwork.

Tiger by Francesca Attard

The posture of the hand and fingers is slightly reminiscent of that of St John the Baptist in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous masterpiece. Both biblical and esoteric interpretations have been suggested as being relevant to the posture as well as the enigmatic smile of the saint in the case of the Renaissance painting.

Attard purses her lips in concentration, in an effort to portray what she is all about. This self-portrait works on more than one level – it is a demonstration of artistic ability and a character study of the artist herself. She demonstrates her ability at intense realism even when she uses colour, especially in her portrait of St John Paul II.

She demonstrates this ability also by bringing out the texture and gloss of the fur in her painting of a tiger. Such is the realism in the latter painting that it almost demands of the viewer to touch the artwork, to ascertain that it is indeed not the real thing. One almost expects the moist feline nose to nuzzle against our hands.

In novelist Salman Rushdie’s words: “Hyperrealism can create an atmosphere of surrea­lism because nobody sees the world in such detail”. These words succinctly describe both artists’ oeuvre as they show that they can perceive the real world microcosmically.

This collection of paintings is essentially an exploration of terrains, both architectural and human; a study which runs more than skin-deep.

Casino Notabile, Saqqajja Hill, Rabat, is hosting The Way to Realism from Sunday, December 20 to 31. Opening hours are 9am to noon and 3.30pm to 8.30pm and from 9am to noon on December 25 and December 31. Entrance is free but COVID-19 rules are to be followed. For more information, e-mail mark.francesca16@gmail.com.