The untimely death, in 2010, of artist Isabelle Borg, at just 51 years of age, deprived the Maltese art scene of an original protagonist who explored myriad the
In the 21st article in a series on 20th century artists who shaped Maltese modernism,
Joseph Agius explores the world of
Caesar Attard.
The art of Caesar Attard (b. 1946) is difficult to define due to its complexity and idiosyncratic evolution. Attard investigates the opposites, the dualities; experimentation is an integral part of his game. His art, conceptual, inquisitive and ephemeral, is very much in touch with the general world around him, be it technological breakthroughs, sociopolitical considerations as well as the introspectively personal.
Caesar Attard
Attard, born in Żejtun just after World War II, is the sixth of seven children. He enjoyed a happy but cocooned childhood amid a genuine Catholic rural upbringing and a parental encouragement to pursue his artistic studies; his parents realised that their young son demonstrated a precocious aptitude at drawing. His brothers all found employment at the dockyard and followed in their father’s footsteps. The young Caes