In The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays Hans-Georg Gadamer asked the following rhetorical question: ‘If the only things we know are mass-produced in factories, marketed with intensive advertising, and finally thrown away when they are broken, can any thinking person expect the visual arts of today to give us the opportunity of recognizing things that are no longer real, that mean nothing to us, as if that could deepen familiarity with our world?’
Gadamer’s strictures on representational art are fundamentally different from Plato’s notorious criticism of it. They are also differently motivated. When things can no longer be represented, Gadamer seems to be saying, artists resort to non-representational and abstract forms in order to express their feelings. As the title of the present exhibition indicates, this is precisely what Christopher Saliba seeks to achieve in his works. Stripped of any visual references or figurative clues, these abstract paintings all untitled are the external manifestation of inner impulses, an attempt to mirror a state of mind at a particular moment in time.
The spiritual landscape projected by Christopher Saliba is marked by turbulence and agitation. It is a whirling inner world of sensations, impressions, fears, passions and hopes. Dramatic forms are carved with a palette knife or incised with sharp utensils into the dense coloured surfaces of his canvases. Filtering beams and shafts of light, suggested by the ephemeral qualities of thin and diluted paint, penetrate dark crevices and densely textured surfaces to heighten the drama of the underlying conflict.
The true protagonist of Saliba’s paintings is colour. It is through colour that the artist’s spiritual drama is forcefully expressed. The gestural brushwork is contained within elaborate structures that stand for whatever is logical, rational and predictable, while the drippings, the blobs of paint, the splashes of colour here and there evoke whatever is illogical, undetermined and unforeseeable.
The spontaneity of Saliba’s approach is reminiscent of action painting, his penchant for colour and its aesthetic and sensual attributes owes much to the influence of abstract expressionist painters, while there are also clear affinities with the aims and practices of Art Informel.
Painting is just one medium used by Christopher Saliba in his wide repertoire of artistic creations. Sculpture, printmaking, photographs, installations and video productions all form part of his impressive output. Living in Gozo, Saliba declares his interest in exploring the primordial links between man and the natural environment. While expressing symbolically the limitations that people living in confined areas have to put up with, Saliba looks ‘beyond the horizon’ for artistic styles that enable him to convey feelings and emotions that transcend the boundaries of an enclosed physical space.
Professor Joe Friggieri, in Introspections, artist's publication.
Professor Joe Friggieri is the head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Malta and a member of its academic Senate.
Gadamer’s strictures on representational art are fundamentally different from Plato’s notorious criticism of it. They are also differently motivated. When things can no longer be represented, Gadamer seems to be saying, artists resort to non-representational and abstract forms in order to express their feelings. As the title of the present exhibition indicates, this is precisely what Christopher Saliba seeks to achieve in his works. Stripped of any visual references or figurative clues, these abstract paintings all untitled are the external manifestation of inner impulses, an attempt to mirror a state of mind at a particular moment in time.
The spiritual landscape projected by Christopher Saliba is marked by turbulence and agitation. It is a whirling inner world of sensations, impressions, fears, passions and hopes. Dramatic forms are carved with a palette knife or incised with sharp utensils into the dense coloured surfaces of his canvases. Filtering beams and shafts of light, suggested by the ephemeral qualities of thin and diluted paint, penetrate dark crevices and densely textured surfaces to heighten the drama of the underlying conflict.
The true protagonist of Saliba’s paintings is colour. It is through colour that the artist’s spiritual drama is forcefully expressed. The gestural brushwork is contained within elaborate structures that stand for whatever is logical, rational and predictable, while the drippings, the blobs of paint, the splashes of colour here and there evoke whatever is illogical, undetermined and unforeseeable.
The spontaneity of Saliba’s approach is reminiscent of action painting, his penchant for colour and its aesthetic and sensual attributes owes much to the influence of abstract expressionist painters, while there are also clear affinities with the aims and practices of Art Informel.
Painting is just one medium used by Christopher Saliba in his wide repertoire of artistic creations. Sculpture, printmaking, photographs, installations and video productions all form part of his impressive output. Living in Gozo, Saliba declares his interest in exploring the primordial links between man and the natural environment. While expressing symbolically the limitations that people living in confined areas have to put up with, Saliba looks ‘beyond the horizon’ for artistic styles that enable him to convey feelings and emotions that transcend the boundaries of an enclosed physical space.
Professor Joe Friggieri, in Introspections, artist's publication.
Professor Joe Friggieri is the head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Malta and a member of its academic Senate.
