Chris Attard | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

This book aims at presenting the diverse facets of Gianni Vella's artistic personality. It presents his Church paintings which, because of their very accessibility, remain his best known, but it also presents Vella working in different conditions, when, cut loose from the understandable strictures of Church commissions, he let his guard down and manifested a more adventurous and experimental nature. More importantly, this book seeks to redress the virtual obscurity and misunderstanding that loom unjustly over his large corpus of works. This book marks the artistic life of Gianni Vella, one of the most prolific Maltese artists of the twentieth century. Vella certainly left an indelible mark on sacred art but equally important is the mark he left on political caricature, on landscape painting and on images recording a bygone, romanticized Malta. His copious output, found in churches and in public and private collections, is an enduring testimony to his skill. The book traces his life from a student to a mature artist and includes over 180 images of his work, some examples of which were never seen in public. Research for this remarkable publication was carried out by Christian Attard, a scholar who holds turn-of-the-twentieth-century art close to heart. Attard has carried out other studies which deal with this compelling era which had seen a sea-change in the world of art but even in the world at large. All the photos, which offer a truly fascinating visual document of Vella's rich artistic journey, were purposely taken for this publication by Joe P. Borg