This July, Il-Hagar Museum will shine a long-overdue spotlight on one of Malta’s unsung artistic pioneers: Carmelo Mangion (1905-1997).

The exhibition, curated by Dr Nikki Petroni – Carmelo Mangion: Mystery and Modernity – is a rare and comprehensive retrospective that delves into the life, work, and legacy of this often underrepresented figure in Maltese modern art and is being presented in the context of the 28th edition of the Victoria International Arts Festival.

The museum said that a diverse selection of Mangion’s portraits, thematic landscapes, and etchings, many of which have not been exhibited in public for decades, will be brought together under one roof.

Born in Naxxar in 1905, Mangion was one of six children and showed artistic promise from a young age. He began his formal training under the society painter Giuseppe Duca (1871-1948), later continuing under Edward Caruana Dingli, one of Malta’s most celebrated artists. His artistic journey took him beyond the island, studying at the British Academy of Art in Rome and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris.

However, a pivotal chapter in Mangion’s career unfolded during his four-year stay at the Central School of Art in New York, where he studied commercial art and etching. Etching would become one of his defining media, an enduring passion that he would later pass on to a new generation of Maltese modern artists.

Among the many artists he mentored are William Apap, Anton Inglott, Emvin Cremona, Frank Portelli, Joseph Borg Xuereb, Alfred Chircop, Joe Muscat, Salvatore Privitera, Frank Baldacchino, Publius Farrugia, Salvatore Casabene, Oliver Agius, and Joe Calleja.

Mystery and Modernity is presented through the initiative of Il-Hagar Museum, with the close collaboration of the Mangion Family, who has been instrumental in bringing their father’s legacy back into public view.

Alongside the exhibition, visitors will be able to view a comprehensive timeline of the artist’s life and a specially produced catalogue exploring Mangion’s artistic development and influence within Malta’s cultural landscape.

Joseph Borg, a representative of Fondazzjoni Belt Victoria which manages Il-Hagar, remarked, “after honouring the likes of Mangion’s 20th-century art counterparts such as Anton Inglott (in 2019), Emvin Cremona (in 2021), Willie Apap (in 2022) and Esprit Barthet (in 2023) with major retrospectives that brought together under one roof an impressive number of their works, this time Il-Hagar has chosen to honour the father of Maltese modern art himself, Carmelo Mangion, with a retrospective we have been working on for the past two years in collaboration with the Mangion Family.”

He added that, “I am confident that over the course of its two-month run, hundreds of people from every nook and cranny of the Maltese islands and beyond will flock to Il-Hagar to see Mangion’s works, some of which will be on display for the first time.”

Carmelo Mangion: Mystery and Modernity opens to the public on the 6th of July, and will run until the 8th of September. Admission is free.

For more information, please visit www.heartofgozo.org.mt

Photos: Il-Hagar Museum

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