The extensive career of artist Charles Cassar is being celebrated in Bank of Valletta’s 19th Retrospective Exhibition, which is being held at the Bank’s Head Office in St Venera between the 13th of June and the 23rd of July 2009.

Born in 1944 in Valletta, Cassar, the eldest of four children, was educated at the Primary school in Valletta and the Lyceum in Hamrun. During his Lyceum days (1956-61), he regularly attended evening courses at the Malta School of Art. His professors were Karmenu Mangion, Chev. Emvin Cremona, Prof. Gorg Borg, Antoine Camilleri, Chev. Esprit Barthet and Fr. Marius Zerafa. In 1964 Cassar sat for the Govt. Scholarship Examination held at the same school of Art. He placed first and was awarded a four-year scholarship to further his artistic studies abroad. He moved on to England where he spent two years at Croydon College of Art in Surrey.

In 1965 Charles travelled to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome where, after the initial three month trial period, he was admitted to the third year of a four year course leading to the Diploma di Licenza In 1967 Cassar received the Diploma of the Academy after having submitted his thesis about the Maltese sculptor Melchiorre Gafa`.

Cassar’s artistic career has taken him all over Europe, with various art galleries obtaining his works and decorating him with various prestigious awards. In 1983, the Malta Stamp Design Advisory Board commissioned Cassar to design a set of four stamps marking the ‘Commonwealth Day’ for the Commonwealth Collection of March the 14th of that year. In 1985 the Associazione Dei Poeti conferred il Premio Internazionale ‘Citta` de la Valletta’ on the artist.

The exhibition is being inaugurated on the 12th of June 2009 and will be open to the General public from the 13th of June 2009 till the 23rd of July 2009. Charles Cassar’s retrospective exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue including a biographical synopsis and reproductions in colour of all the exhibits in the exhibition.

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