The sad news of Saviour Casabene’s demise on Christmas Eve reached me in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, East Africa where I am currently engaged in conducting research on African Art and Aesthetics, a project I had started working on since 1985. The news was conveyed to me in a brief email sent by my friend Sandro Debono, the Curator of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta. As I sat after reading the email trying to digest death’s bitterness, a whole series of memories, events, encounters passed through my head in a flash, forgetting where I was and what I was doing at least for a while. It did not take me long however to realise once again how all the pioneers of modern art in Malta are leaving us one by one each year. What hurts most is how key figures like Saviour Casabene who played such a pivotal role in bringing about a change through modern ideas in the realm of the visual arts, both as an artist and even more so as an outspoken critic, pass into oblivion with hardly any acknowledgment.
Saviour Casabene studied painting under Emvin Cremona at the Malta Government School of Art where he met his lifelong colleagues such as Antoine Camilleri, Frank Portelli, Joseph A. Caruana, Tony Pace and Alfred Chircop among others. He also studied etching under Carmelo Mangion. Records found at the Malta Government School of Art indicate that Casabene attended the evening school regularly between 1943 and 1949. He joined the Modern Art Circle in May 1952 pushing further the debate on modernism through his writings, which have been described by J.F. Muscat as historical landmarks in contributing to a desired change in favour of modernism. Casabene’s debate was taken up for further discussion out of the Malta Government School of Art, in cafes in Valletta, in artists’ group meetings and at the British Institute where a symbolic vote was taken by a group attending an art discussion with 36 voting for Modernism against 14 votes considering modernism as a degenerate form of art. Casabene remained in touch with Muscat even when the latter went to Canada until his demise in 25 June 1991.
In my book Pioneers of Modern Art in Malta, Volume I, PIN, 2010, I presented Saviour Casabene’s artistic profile and the important historical role he played in joining the first group of modern painters and sculptors to promote a new aesthetic. I am glad that this profile has contributed in bringing about awareness on the history of modern art in our country and has been instrumental in convincing the museum authorities to purchase two works by Casabene in 2011 for the National Collection.
Saviour Casabene was a leading driving force in the modern art movement in the early 1950s. He participated regularly in exhibitions but even more so he defended his art group through his writings, which he published in the local dailies.
Saviour Casabene made his debut in May-July 1951 with a series of articles on Modern Art in the local newspapers. His articles were provocative and addressed the “The Present State of Art in Malta”. Soon after he was joined by his artist-friend J.F. Muscat and their articles instigated so much controversy that the editor of The Time of Malta had to put a halt to any further correspondence on the subject. Casabene’s outcry at this time was: “Talent is there… But it is dormant. It needs encouragement.”
Casabene believed that change could only come through educating the public and many of his articles at this time focused on the need of a drastic change in the system of education and specifically that pertaining to art teaching: “The very air we breathe is saturated with the ideas of the great masters: the stream-lined car and aeroplane, the furniture in our houses and even the pattern and cut of our clothes owe their elegance to the genius of these great artists.”
This writing seems to be a direct quote from a section of the Futurist manifesto. In The Times of Malta of July 1951, Saviour Casabene teamed up with Francis Ebejer and J.F. Muscat, to highlight the need to change with the times where he argued: “Art as a human activity cannot be the same in every age. It must change with the times. How else could it be that traditional knowledge and progress increase knowledge and power?”
In an article dated 1957 he depicted the high hopes that stirred his colleagues to push forward their ideas in times of struggle, and how soon their hopes turned bitter: “Our youthful life’s energetic zest respectively had made us hope and make-believe in a progressively better and peaceful world – after coming out safely from the Second World War follies.
“Our high-noon hope of a near-future, safe, new world may have lasted until 1955. By then, in fact, promising students among us had emigrated. Then that relatively happy, hopeful holiday daydream decade drew to a dusk. We drew apart and grew up nurtured and matured on one’s own by the next new day’s dawn dreams of bad, sad and mad recurrent news of living absurdities around and ahead of us.”
The sad reality that Casabene recorded here refers to the uphill battle modern artists fought to promote modern art in Malta in the early 1950s. It was unfortunate that some young artists, finding limited support in these hard times, sought to leave the island in search for better opportunities abroad. This was the case with Pullu Farrugia (known as Pablo for Picasso) who went to the United States, Saviour Privitera who settled in the United Kingdom, J.F. Muscat who went to Canada, Gerry Caruana, Joe Vassallo and Lawrence Gravino who went to Australia and Frank Baldacchino who first went to the United Kingdom, later to Australia and eventually returned to Malta.
Saviour Casabene wrote several other articles at this time, but many did not make it to print. Many were censored for their controversial nature in favour of modern art. He received many letters from different newspaper editors informing him that they did not have the space to publish his articles. This was of course only an excuse and a way out for the newspaper to avoid any polemics on the subject of modern aesthetics. These articles which still exist in the family archives form the basis of a better understanding of the struggle made by the Modern Art Circle, the Modern Art Group and later Atelier ’56.
I have fond memories of Saviour Casabene whom I came to know much later in life when he was already retired. I remember him coming to the British Legion Art Exhibitions and engaging in lively conversations about art in Malta. He used to make it a point to come over and join a group of students I had from the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce while I engaged them on regular tours of current exhibitions. I particularly remember him when the first Ggajta Exhibition was on and he came up to me and recommended that I record my reflections on tape, an idea I picked up later when I started interviewing our main leading artists.
Saviour Casabene always remained a positive man even when he was sick and hardly mobile in his wheelchair. When he attended Frank Portelli’s Bank of Valletta Exhibition in Sliema in November 1998, he only made signs with his eyes and when he was asked how he was doing, he smiled and nodded as if to remark: “I am doing just fine!”
Saviour Casabene is the loss of a key figure of our modern art movement. His place in history is sealed with his art and writings.
Joseph Paul Cassar is professor of art at the University of Maryland University College, USA. He is the author of several books on Modern Art in Malta. He is a visiting professor at various universities and colleges, engaged in online art history courses for the New York Times. Currently, he is designing and delivering new courses for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.