Giorgio Preca Painter
Giorgio Preca Malta
THE ARTIST
Giorgio Preca at Barrakka Gardens, Valletta
Giorgio Preca, born in Valletta in 1909, is a Maltese artist and one of the leading figures of the Maltese Modern Art Avant-garde.
From a young age, his artistic talent was noticed by Edward and Robert Caruana Dingli, his teachers at the Malta Government School of Art.
He continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome where, after being admitted, he was placed in the third year of the painting course. Due to his painting skills, he completed his studies in just two years, earning the Diploma of the Academy of Fine Arts. He was arwarded the prize for being the best student.
At the beginning of his artistic career he received numerous commissions from prominent Maltese personalities. His portrait style was characterised by a profound introspection of the subject.
His first solo exhibition took place in 1935 at the Auberge d'Italie which later became the Fine Arts of Malta.
In 1936 he participated in an exhibition organised in the pavilion of the Malta Art and Industry Exhibition at the Rockefeller Centre in New York.
In 1938 he exhibited two works at the Mostra delle Belle Arti del Lazio in Rome alongside numerous futurist and abstract artists including Balla, Severini, Afro and other renowned painters of the time.
Preca received the diploma of member of the Malta Society of Arts Manufactures and Commerce in 1939 and subsequently he participated in two exhibitions organised by the same association.
In 1946 he taught at the British Academy in Rome.
Preca's solo exhibition organised at the Hotel Phoenicia in 1948 and curated by Professor and Art Critic Valerio Mariani, is remembered as marking a breakthrough in Maltese art with the onset of Modernism in Malta.
In 1951 Giorgio Preca was elected unanimously President of the Modern Art Group. With a group of artists he proposed an innovative art that was not dictated by the figurative stereotypes of the past. In 1953 he was elected President of the Malta Cultural Institute. He was later appointed Honorary President of the Atelier '56.
Preca also introduced a modern style in the pictorial representations of religious images in Malta.
From the 1950s onwards, the painter devoted himself to new abstract and surreal experiments, including the Alien Series. This subject was exhibited for the first time, setting a precedent in the world of art. Some of his alien-themed works were part of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna collection in Rome.
In 1958, he participated in the Venice Art Biennale at the Pavilion of Foreign Artists in Italy.
In 1966, he held a solo exhibition of 60 works at the Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery in London.
Giorgio Preca dedicated his later years to an artistic research on the study of pictorial matter, pushing his art towards abstractionism and his artistic production continued uninterruptedly.
The MUŻA , National Museum of Art in Malta, currently preserves works by Preca in its permanent collection.
Exhibitions
1935
Art Exhibition at Auberge d’Italie - Valletta (solo)
1936
Malta Art Amateur Association XXIII Exhibition - Valletta
1936
The Malta Art and Industry Exhibition - Rockfeller Buildings – New York
1936
Mostra d’Arte dell’Istituto Interuniversitario - Palazzo Doria Pamphili, Roma
1938
Malta Art Amateur Association XXIV Exhibition - Valletta
1938
Exhibition of Paintings by George Preca, at Old Railway Station, Valletta
1938
Mostra Mercati Traianei – Roma
1939
Malta Museum, Valletta - Malta
1939
Malta Art Association XXV Exhibition - Valletta
1945
Exhibition at Ellis Studio Kingsway, Valletta (solo)
1946
Galleria “Fontanella” - Roma
1947
Individual exhibition - Galleria “ Sant’Agostino” – Roma
1947
Studio Galleria “Mola” – Roma
1947
Galleria “Il Ritrovo dell’Art Club” - Roma
1947
Mostra d’Arte Unione Cattolica Artisti Italiani – Roma
1948
Individual exhibition - Hotel “Phoenicia”, Floriana - Malta
1948
Mostra d’Arte Unione Cattolica Artisti Italiani - Roma
1950
Galleria “La Fontanella” – Roma
1950
Marine di Malta - Individual exhibition - Galleria “La Finestra”- Roma
1950
International Exhibition of Sacred Art in the Vatican City – with the participation of
artists Rouault and Carena
1951
Individual exhibition - Associazione Artistica Internazionale, Via Margutta- Roma
1951
First Annual Modern Art Exhibition - Modern Art Circle - Valletta
1951
Individual Exhibition - Galleria del Circolo Internazionale – Via Margutta, Roma
1952
Centenary Exhibition - Malta Society of Arts - Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta
1952
Individual exhibition - Galleria “ Tazza d’Oro” - Via della Croce, 80 - Roma
1952
Mostra dell’Associazione della Stampa Estera in Italia – Via della Mercede, 54 - Roma
1953
Modern Art Group - II Annual Exhibition – Valletta
1955
Preca - C.S.S.C. - Hostel Verdelin, Valletta
1955
Triennal Art Exhibition - Malta Society of Arts - Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta
1955
Modern Art Group - III Annual Exhibition - Valletta
1957
Exhibition Associazione Artistica Internazionale via Margutta - Roma
1958
XXIX° Biennale Internazionale d’Arte - Venezia
1960
Galleria “La Feluca” - Personaggi della Roma d’oggi - Via Frattina, Roma
1960
XI° Fiera d’Arte di Via Margutta - Roma
1960
Individual exhibition - Galleria “Il Camino” - Via del Babbuino, Roma
1960
Mostra Via Frattina – Roma
1961
III° Rassegna di Arti Figurative di Roma e del Lazio - Roma
1962
VI° Premio di Pittura Via Frattina – Roma
1962
Exhibition Galleria d’Arte del Palazzo delle Esposizioni – Roma
1962
2° Mostra Nazionale di Pittura Estemporanea – Palestrina
1963
IV° Rassegna d’Arti Figurative di Roma e del Lazio – Roma
1963
I° Mostra Nazionale d’Arte Sacra - Celano
1964
Modernità nell’Arte Sacra – Via Condotti, Roma
1964
Individual exhibition - Galleria d’Arte “Stagni” - Roma
1964
Mostra di 13 Artisti alla Galleria “Stagni” - Roma
1964
Mostra di 16 Pittori alla Galleria “Stagni” - Roma
1964
Mostra di 14 Artisti alla Galleria “Stagni” - Roma
1964/65
I° Mostra Internazionale “Il Natale nel mondo” – Roma
1965
I° Mostra Internazionale “I misteri”, Pasqua Romana -
Centro Internazionale di Arte e Cultura, Via Condotti -Roma
1965
XVII Fiera d’Arte Via Margutta – S.P.Q.R. Assessorato al Turismo Roma
1965
III Mostra Nazionale d’Arte Sacra – Castello di Celano
1966
Mostra della Società “Dante Alighieri” - Galleria E.P.T. - Roma
1966
Individual exhibition Giorgio Preca - Galleria d’Arte del Palazzo delle Esposizioni – Roma
1966
Giorgio Preca - Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery – London
1968
Sacred Art Exhibition - St . John’s Co-Cathedral Annexe, Valletta
1968
Il Presepio Cristiano – Galleria Colonna – Roma
1971
Individual exhibition - Galleria “Stagni” – Roma
1975
Exhibition Galleria “Il Tetto” - Roma
1993
Bodies in the Nude, Iljieli Mediterranji, Robert Sammut Hall - Floriana, Malta
2002
Historical Artists Exhibition, National Museum of Fine Arts - Valletta
2018
Nisġa: Storja Kontemporanja, Spazju Kreattiv - Valletta
2022
Giorgio Preca ta' Malta : An International Artist with a Modern Spirit, MUŻA - Valletta
2023
Fragments of a Legacy, Malta Society of Arts - Valletta
2023
Order of Malta National Art Exhibition - St. John's Cavalier, Valletta
2025
Still Life, Life Still - Malta Society of Arts - Valletta
2026
Hidden Goddesses - Unseen Paintings by Giorgio Preca - National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta