In Search of Victor Pasmore
Last week we went to Malta, not just for the sun (though that was lovely), but in search of Victor Pasmore.
You might know Pasmore as one of Britain’s great modernist painters, but what fascinated me was his later life, when he moved to Malta in the 1960s and quietly transformed both his practice and the country’s visual culture.
(photo by John Pasmore)
In Valletta, we visited spaces where his work still hangs and spoke to local art historians about his time there. I saw his abstract murals, reliefs, and paintings, many of them created during his so-called retirement on the island. But "retirement" might be the wrong word; he was still pushing boundaries, embracing Mediterranean light and colour, and working on large-scale public art. It’s a side of Pasmore that's less known, but full of calm, clarity, and experimentation.
Points of Contact No. 17
At MUŻA, Malta’s National Community Art Museum, I saw some extraordinary late works, especially “Points of Contact No. 17”, a nearly three-metre-wide silkscreen that layers poetry over shifting, translucent forms. It feels like a meditative score, lines and words suspended in space, as if both thought and image are arriving at the same pace.
Another highlight was “Untitled (1998)”, one of his last works, glowing with restrained energy. It uses Pasmore’s signature visual language; blurred edges, loosely traced lines, and layered spherical forms, but introduces neon in a way that feels completely alive. The contrast of electric colour with soft-edged abstraction was striking. It doesn’t feel like a swan song, more like an artist still experimenting, still curious.
Untitled (1998)
Over at the Victor Pasmore Gallery in Valletta, we spent time with some of his earlier Maltese pieces: floating constructions on canvas, painted reliefs, and quiet studies in balance. His work there isn’t just decorative, it seems to ask you to slow down, to consider space as something emotional.
And of course, there's his relief mural at the Central Bank of Malta, which still holds pride of place, a testament not just to his artistic contribution but to how embedded he became in Malta’s visual landscape.
(Senza titolo 7 (1989) – Etching and aquatint - Bank of Malta)
Pasmore didn’t just retreat to the island, he shaped part of its cultural identity. He mentored young artists, reformed the curriculum at the Malta School of Art, and created works that continue to shape public spaces.
For me, the whole experience felt like tracing the outline of an artist who never stopped evolving. A reminder that creativity doesn’t retire, it adapts, it listens, it changes shape in new light.
- Caroline
