~Emvin Cremona 1919-1987

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Emvin Cremona was among the foremost Maltese painters of the twentieth century, soon becoming a formidable name in the fields of landscape, church decoration and, later, stamp-design and abstract painting.

Born in Valletta, Cremona showed that he had great artistic talent from a young age and in spite of lack of family support he studied art at the Malta School of Arts under Edward Caruana Dingli and Karmenu Mangion, in company with Willie Apap, Anton Inglott, Esprit Barthet and Victor Diacono. Cremona used to participate in group painting sessions in the countryside, which prepared him for his later work in Rome, where he was to excel in this field.

In 1938 Cremona started a scholarship to study in Rome at the Regia Accademia delle Belle Arti along with fellow artists, Anton Inglott, Esprit Barthet and George Preca. This was an important time for Cremona as his first encounters with Modernism in Rome were developed in his later artistic progress.

However once WWII broke out their situation became very difficult and in 1941 Emvin Cremona returned to Malta with Anton Inglott (1) and was conscripted into the army. Besides designing camouflage (2), he produced scenery for troop drama productions and also restored heraldic emblems at the Main Guard in Palace Square, Valletta (3).
In 1945 and 1946 Cremona continued his studies not in Rome, but in London at the renowned Slade School of Art where he had his first personal experience of a cultural climate far more up-to-date with current trends than Rome. He later attended the Parisian Ecole Superieur de Beaux Arts.

Following two decades of Impressionistic landscape painting and some of the first examples of abstraction in Malta, his art took a dramatic turn in 1960 in reaction to the grave politico-religious crisis. Cremona’s art was seen all over the grand celebrations to mark the anniversary of St Paul’s coming to Malta in 1960, as his strong, fascist-influenced style was ideally suited to the religious feeling and the tense political climate of the times.

Religious commissions flowed as a result of this exposure, his paintings adorning domes and panels at the Parish Church of San Gejtanu in Hamrun, the Catholic Institute in Floriana, St Publius Church in Floriana, the Parish Church of Msida, Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary, the Chapel of the Malta International Airport and various other churches around Malta and Gozo.

While geometrically abstracted figures remained typical of Cremona, his mellowing style enhanced by black and gold harmonised with the Baroque of most of Malta’s churches. Through his aim to create church art that was modern yet truly devotional, Cremona broke down the resistance of church traditionalists and dominated the field of church painting for two decades.

Similarly, thanks to his strong graphic design talents, Cremona designed most of Malta’s stamps from the late 1950s to the 1970s including the stamps commemorating Malta’s independence from Britain in 1964. His paintings also hang at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva and the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Moving to his full artistic maturity, Cremona’s impasto abstracts incorporating gravel, sand, plaster glass and other materials, are in a class of their own and took Malta’s artistic scene by storm. Emvin Cremona died on the 31st January 1987. His son Marco Cremona is a leading artist in his father’s footsteps.

NOTES
1. Verbal communication from Mrs Mary Inglott to Denis Vella, 1993
2. D.Cutajar, “Emvin Cremona”, 74.
3. Information kindly supplied by Capt. C. Adrian Strickland, K.M.
REFERENCES:
Emvin Cremona and Rome: A Lasting Influence’ Dennis Vella
‘Emvin Cremona (1919-1987) and the rise of modern sensibilities in Maltese sacred art’: Treasures of Malta, Summer, 2008.
Six Modern Artists: Dominic Cutajar
Maltese Artists in Rome, 1930-1940: Dennis Vella