Malta The New Poetry

Pasmore moved to Malta in 1966, a time when the birth of the Modern Art Circle was relatively new though artists such as Barthet, Camilleri, Caruana were already established. It was a turbulent time for Malta, though an artistically rich one, and Pasmore immersed himself into the history and culture of the place, forming lasting relationships with his Maltese contemporaries. Malta the New Poetry: An Anthology of Modern Maltese Verse edited by Mario Azzopardi (Klabb Kotba Maltin 1971) is a selection of Maltese poems translated into English. The idea behind this book was to show foreigners that there is much more to Malta than sun and sea and commercialised tourism, and that the history, culture and people are the real ‘pulsating soul’ of the country. This selection claims, therefore, to be the mouthpiece of a long-suffering people emerging into the expanse of political and intellectual independence. It claims to expose the bible of the new generation rooted under the silent temples of the gods, the rugged rubble walls, the trees of the prickly pear, yet searching (Mario Azzopardi). Poems by some of Malta’s foremost authors – Victor Fenech, Oliver Friggieri, Joe Friggieri, Daniel Massa, Achille Mizzi, Lilian Sciberras and Kenneth Wain are published alongside the English translation on the opposite page – a valuable and noteworthy publication. I was excited to find placed inside this book, one of the 1975 Malta Broadsheets that I had recently been looking for. These were packaged sets of six cards published on different coloured paper, each one featuring a poem by a Maltese author illustrated by a Maltese artist. The (single) one here is of a poem by Daniel Massa illustrated by Alfred Chircop. This combination of art and literature was another means of promoting local artists, people Pasmore would have met and shared ideas with, helping them promote their art through exhibitions etc. Later, Pasmore himself would experiment with the word and the image and in 1988 published a book of his works called Burning Waters – Visual and Poetic Images (Progress Press, Malta).

In 2018, Victor Pasmore’s children, John Henry Pasmore and Mary Ellen Nice, donated over 500 books and exhibition catalogues to the University of Malta, Archives and Rare Books Department 

The Victor Pasmore Gallery is open to visitors at APS House, 274 St Paul Street, Valletta.