Emanuel Vincent "Emvin" Cremona (27 May 1919 – 29 January 1987) was a Maltese artist and stamp designer. He was as one of Malta's leading artists of the 20th century, and a pioneer of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in Malta. Cremona is known for

designing A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

most Maltese stamps from 1957 to the 1980s, including the stamp issue commemorating Malta's

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from

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in 1964. He studied at the Malta School of Arts and the Regia Accademia delle Belle Arti in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Some of his works can be found at the parish churches of

Msida Msida (, ) is a harbour town in the Eastern Region, Malta, Eastern Region of Malta with a population of 7,623 (2021). Location The town is located just west of Valletta on the northeast coast of Malta. The neighbouring towns of Msida are Ta' ...

and

Ħamrun Hamrun ( ) is a town in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 9,244 as of March 2014. The people The townspeople are traditionally known as ''Tas-Sikkina'' (literally meaning 'of the knife' or 'those who ca ...

, Ta' Pinu Sanctuary, Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Paola and the Chapel of the Malta International Airport. The

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headquarters in

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and the

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in New York also house paintings by Cremona. Emanuel Vincent Cremona (his Christian names were informally shortened to Emvin from birth) was born in Valletta on May 27, 1919. Up to 1936 he attended the '' Scuola Umberto I'' for his formal education. In 1933, he was taken to Rome where he was overwhelmed by the experience. Later he attended the School of Art, finding himself in a class that composed Willie Apap, Anton Inglott, Esprit Barthet, and Victor Diacono. Their teachers were Edward Caruana Dingli and Carmenu Mangion, both of a mixed classicist and Romantic temperament. At an early age, Cremona used to participate in the annual shows of the Malta Amateur Art Association. In 1937 he competed for the Government scholarship, placing third after Willie Apap and Anton Inglott. He went to Rome for a course of studies at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti under Carlo Siviero between 1938 and 1940. In Rome he felt a closeness, a spiritual kinship to Anton Inglott. The two young artists were still in Rome just before Italy entered the war in 1940 but they returned to Malta together on the last boat to reach the island in peacetime. In 1945 he won the Agnes Schembri Bequest, enabling him to proceed to London and Paris to deepen his studies in art. Between 1945 and 1947 he attended classes at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

and later he attended lessons at the Parisian Ecole Superieur de Beaux Arts under professor Jean Dupas. Emvin returned to Malta in 1948. He represented the country in their first pavilion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1958. He married Lilian Gatt and had four children.

References

Maltese stamp designers Philately of Malta 1919 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Maltese painters Artists from Valletta Maltese artists Maltese expatriates in Italy {{Malta-bio-stub

See also

References