MICAS, the Malta International Contemporary Arts Space, is proud to announce a major, newly commissioned sculpture by the celebrated Maltese artist Ray Pitrè (1940-2024), which will be permanently and prominently positioned within the campus as part of MICAS’s permanent collection.

On 9 January 2025, MICAS pays tribute to the legacy of the late Pitrè, one of Malta’s leading exponents of contemporary art, whose final work Figure in Rods (2024) bequeaths to MICAS the indelible stamp of a bold artist.

A temporary display exhibition, curated by the Washington-based Maltese art historian Joseph Paul Cassar, a leading expert on modern and contemporary Maltese art, also opens with the sculpture’s inauguration.

On 11 January 2025, MICAS hosts Cassar for an engaging art talk that explores Figure in Rods. Entrance is free but booking is obligatory.

“MICAS consulted closely with Pitrè on the bronze rendering of Figure In Rods and its permanent position on the museum’s campus. We are pleased that his exact wishes for its realisation and placement have been honoured, and we are only saddened that he did not live long enough to witness its inauguration,” said Edith Devaney, MICAS Artistic Director.

“To visitors to MICAS, this poignant piece encapsulates an unparalleled ability to explore profound psychological and emotional themes, and will be a constant reminder of and testament to Pitrè’s achievement.”

MICAS executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat said the commissioning and permanent placement of Figure in Rods both celebrates the artistic legacy of one of Malta’s finest artists, and underlines MICAS’s mission to bring Maltese art and artists into conversation with an international artistic community.

“It is indeed an honour for us to become the custodians of Ray Pitrè’s final work, at this early stage of MICAS’s mission to bring international contemporary art to Malta, but also to showcase Maltese contemporary art to the rest of the world,” Muscat said.

The Ray Pitrè exhibition will feature a display of drawings, paintings and a smaller sculpture by Pitrè relating to Figure In Rods, which will be permanently and prominently positioned within the campus to form part of the MICAS’s permanent collection.

The Pitrè exhibition takes place on the museum’s fourth floor space. 

Paying visitors at MICAS enjoy access to the Pitrè exhibition as well as the Joana Vasconcelos exhibition, and the works of Conrad Shawcross at the La Vittoria bastion and barrel vaults.

About the Artist

Pitré’s work has been exhibited internationally in London, Berlin, Florence, Copenhagen, Brussels, Palermo, Algiers, New York and Kyoto. He represented Malta at the Venice Biennale in 1999, and his work is housed in national collections and other institutions.

Born in 1940 soon after the first air raids on Malta started during World War II, Pitrè has credited the surrealism of Salvador Dalì as his first brush with international art.

He first joined a monastic order in a short-lived stint, but he finally joined the police force while pursuing his artistic career.

With work on the first of his Scream series from the 1960s, he also produced experimental works using collage techniques and unconventional media such chicken-wire, hardboard, metal, wrought iron, and various objet trouvé, inspired by Duchamp and Calder.

It was while working in the police force that he made his mark as one of the island’s foremost portrait painters: he was called up by a senior ranking police officer to execute the portrait of then-prime minister, Dom Mintoff, in 1973.

The success of this portrait, his first such work, opened him up to a new commission of the portrait of Sir Anthony Mamo, Malta’s first President of the Republic.

His first personal exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1976 brought him public acclaim, allowing him to set up his large studio in Swieqi to devote his life entirely to art.

In 1999, Pitrè was chosen together with Vince Briffa and Norbert Attard for the Malta national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with two magnificent Guerriero sculptures.

He was made a Member of the National Order of Merit of the Republic of Malta in 2000 for services to art.

About the work

Originating from a mixed media assemblage first conceived in 1969 during one of Malta’s aggressive building booms, Figure in Rods is a powerful exploration of psychological confinement.

As one of the earliest Maltese exponents of Arte Povera, the art movement that originated in Italy in the 1960s, Pitrè was known for foraging on building sites, collecting discarded metal rods and scraps to repurpose into his creations. The artist frequently reflected on the entrapping nature of urbanisation, which is a highly relevant issue for contemporary society.

Featuring a solitary figure placed within a dense forest of upright rods, its presence alternately revealed and obscured as viewers move around the piece, the work exemplifies Pitrè’s deeply introspective artistic process, grounded in autobiographical memory and the liminal spaces of human experience.

Through the intricate assemblage of steel rods, the artist transforms the human figure into an elusive presence that simultaneously suggests existence and absence. The upright rods stand like silent sentinels, evoking a sense of isolation and disconnection, symbolising the unseen barriers that entangle the human mind.

By manipulating negative and positive spaces, Pitrè creates a dynamic visual experience where the sculpture oscillates between materiality and ethereality. The bronze rendition allows light and shadow to play across its multi-layered, surreal dreamscape, inviting viewers to engage with complex relationships between form, perception, and psychological constraint.