Arti Nattardo Noel Attard
E V Borg , curator
Arti Nattardo A Hedonistic Approach by E V Borg A hedonistic, pleasure-seeking approach to life, a love for life and a passion for life quite characteristic and distinct marks the essence of Noel Attard’s fantasy world and surreal concoctions. He is a romantic dreamer and poet who seeks lyrical symphony, an artist of feeling and sensual titillation, of frenzied passion and overflowing emotions. He transforms reality as seen through the physical eye with the mind’s eye into surreal scenes of elegant and sensual beauty full of fantasy and imagination. Quite eclectic he is inspired by nature and metamorphoses the physical and tactile world into spiritual beauty or as an aesthete into its joyful essence. He is a mannerist that reduces graphic linearity and melting, palpitating shapes into soft and ghostly pastel shades and
earth colours. His subject is an excuse as his main aim is to transform the canvas into tactile and subtle textures for emotional enjoyment. His concept of art is to stimulate joy and pleasure through musical balance, poetic feeling and lyrical sensuality. His vision is idyllic: nature and man lost in a hedonistic dance to rhythm and swirling movement in stages: from natural, to realist, to surrealist. He treats the nude, landscape, seascape and conceptual musing in an expressive, sensual style through the use of thick paint, scumbling or a dry brush technique that consists of glazes or ‘velature’, layers of quick drying paint that exploit opaque qualities rather than transparency. The main feature is the softening of the element or paint ‘lamina’ to create excitement 4
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and pleasure. The auxiliary use of surgical gauze to canvas aids impasto technique. ‘Fontanella’ (34) a red gate in Mdina is the extreme example of natural reality but hardly is it just physical as it gives the impression that it is the ‘portale’ to heaven or to the Garden of Eden. ‘Kunċizzjoni’ (5) and ‘Kunċizzjoni Baħrija’ (11) are realist paintings in the sense of expressing form, volume and light-flooded walls and cubic shapes. On the contrary ‘Senglea Sunset’ (17), ‘Senglea Sunrise’ (18) and ‘Vittoriosa’ (25) are quite surreal in the artist’s interpretation of the sun’s light rays filtering through clouds, perhaps Noel’s greatest passion or obsession. These 2
works are seeing landscape as if it is lit for a festival with lasers during the night, with the dark sky appearing like an aurora borealis or a stage saturated with foot lights. Perhaps these works emanate what the artist tries to obtain through scumbling technique. Even the series of seascapes are treated in a similar manner. Most characteristic is ‘Two Blue Sails’ (12) in delicate pastel colours of great sensitivity and beauty. All his sails are a figment of the immagination, stylized and mannered and curiously enough his nude in ‘Metamorphoses’ (7) becomes a sail and the sail in ‘Grigal’ (31) becomes a nude. Really strange as this peculiar transition demonstrates that for Noel the subject matters little. What really matters is the end result, whether he obtains a symphony or not.
His conceptual works: ‘Game of Life’ (38) that percieves man as a pawn in a chess game and ‘What Surrounds my Puzzle’ (39), jigsaw pieces that hardly fit in an inhospital enclave show the avid interest of the artist in philosophy. Such love coupled to that of music and history are the basis of Noel’s artistic expression, a romantic language replete with fantasy and imagination. ‘Recling Nude’ (23) in blue is a signature Nattardo work that emantes his sense of elegance and poise in a distincly stylized and idyllic manner. It can be considered both unique and characteristic. 14
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BIO DATA: Noel Attard - Nattardo Noel Attard (b.1966) was brought up in an artistic milieu that nourished him. He exploited such background to the full coaxing his determination towards an artistic career. After attending art schools, Noel sought to compliment his applied practical and technical experience with theoretical academic studies at the University of Malta where he graduated in History of Art 2006. Since his initial participation in 1998 in a collective exhibition in Bath, England through the co-ordination of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, he has never relented and has participated in a considerable number of collective exhibitions both in Malta and foreign countries to the present. In 2003 he held his first personal exhibition at St. James Cavalier followed by his recent show at the Loggia, National Fine Arts Museum, Valletta in 1990. During the past decade Noel has been working on his distinctive style that has enhanced considerably his reputation and convinced international and local collectors to acquire his works for their private collection. Noel aims for the essential or the essence in his art and
conveys only what he thinks is vital to grasp or to capture the viewer’s attention. The texture is the result of a rich impasto or scumbling technique (dry brush technique) a balance reached between the aggressive application of paint and use of surgical gauze glued to the ground that thickens and roughens the canvas and a studied use of subtle colour and soft tonal effects. Noel’s art is a paean to life, a musical symphony that generally shows the emotional state of the artist in depicting a particular piece of work. His works form an essential part of his lifestyle and are thus an integral part of his life. He is an incurable romantic with deep sentiment and passionate emotions and feelings. His fantasy and imagination lend human warmth to an expressive language. Noel is grateful to his family for becoming what he is today.
E V Borg
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INDEX 01. Maltese Balconies 2013, 90x70cm; p2 02. Senglea, Reflections 2013, 60x80cm; p9 03. Blue Valletta Skies, 2013, 50x80cm; p10 04. Mdina, Sunset, 2013, 40x80cm; p1 05. Kuncizzjioni Oil, 2011, 65x85cm; p5 06. Green Sails, 2013, 55x55cm 07. Tal-Patrijiet, Gozo, 2013, 50x60cm 08. Qrendi Church, 2013, 70x70cm 09. Siġġiewi Church, 2013, 65x40cm 10. Mediterranean Sails, 2012, 60x80cm 11. Kuncizzjioni Baħrija, 2012, 40x60cm; p5 12. Two Blue Sails, 2012, 80x40cm 13. Sails at Sunset, 2013, 50x35cm 14. White Sails, 2013, 50x35cm; p3 15. Tramuntana, 2013, 60x60cm; p12 16. Mdina, 2012, 60x80cm; p9 17. Senglea Sunset, 2013, 35x45cm; p8 18. Senglea Sunrise, 2013, 40x60cm; p8 19. Ghost Ships, 2013, 50x70cm; p12 20. Between Mind and Heart, 2012, 50x70cm; p4 21. Gozo Chapel, 2013, 35x70cm; p3 22. Mdina Valley View, 2013, 35x50cm; p10 23. Reclining Nude, 2011, 80x120cm; p4 24. Valletta Sails, 2012, 26x36cm; p11 25. Vittoriosa, 2012, 45x35cm 26. Devil s Advocate, 2012, 50x70cm; p13 27. Mirrored Sails, 2012, 40x60cm 28. Abstract Village, 2012, 55x35cm 29. Vittoriosa Sunset, 2012, 25x35cm 30. Sailing towards Darkness, 2014, 120x60cm; p30 31. Boats at Birgu Waterfront, 2014, 50x70cm 32. Grigal, 2012, 155x70cm; p7 33. Dreaming, 2012, 60x75cm; p13 34. Fontanella, 2012, 60x40cm; p2 35. Sailing East, 2013, 100x100cm 36. Sailing West, 2013, 100x100cm 37. Metamorphosis, 2013, 155x70cm; p7 38. Game of Life 2012, 50cm x 80cm; p14 39. What Surrounds my Puzzle, 2012, 60cm x 80cm; p14 Note: All paintings are in acrylic either on canvas & gause or on watercolour paper and gauze except no. 5 in oil on board.
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Acknowlegements: The Artist in conjunction with the Art Discussion Group (ADG) present
Arti Nattardo An Exhibition of Painting by Noel Attard at the Cavalieri Art Hotel, St. Julians Art Discussion Group Cavalieri Art Hotel Marsovin Crianza Restaurant, Valletta Ferretti Restaurant, Qajjenza Exiles Restaurant, Sliema Haywharf Restaurant, Floriana Art Academy, Mosta Picture and Frames, San Gwann Hon. Hose Herrera M. P. Secretary for Local Government and Culture photo credit: Ms. Mary Attard Curator: E. V. Borg Design & Layout: E. V. Borg & Mary Attard, Text: E. V. Borg © Front cover: Siggiewi Church (9) Inside Front Cover: Vittoriosa (8) Back Cover: White Sails (14) Inside Back Cover: Boats in Birgu (detail) (31) Printing: Best Print Co. Ltd Noel Attard B.A. (Hons) History Email: nattardo@go.net.mt FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ArtNattardo/112593205454104 Tel: 00356 2146 5912 Mob: 00356 9983 0658
CAVALIERI ART HOTEL, St Julians
15th February – 17th March 2014