Ferroni & Coccetta – Exploring Light – an exhibition at Il-Hagar Museum in Gozo, showcases works of one of Italy’s most important artists during the 20th Century – Gianfranco Ferroni – alongside contemporary Italian artist, Walter Coccetta.

Il Hagar said that it is the first ever exhibition of Ferroni’s paintings in the Maltese Islands and will also feature his graphic arts.

Walter Coccetta is no newcomer to Gozo, since he has already exhibited his art at the Gozo Citadel in 2011.

“Il mio prossimo libro sui tesori d’Italia non terminera’ piu’ con Fontana, ma con Ferroni,” Vittorio Sgarbi announced last summer in Seravezza, Italy. Gianfranco Ferroni was a protagonist within the Italian artistic movement of the Metacosa.

Art critic Niccolo’ Lucarelli when looking into the Seravezza exhibition, commented that “Ferroni dedicated many years of his career to the presentation of a rarefied world of a few, insignificant objects, immersed in a light that melts corporeity, which works reveal his composed expectation of, (and search for), the meaning of human existence, which as an atheist, he could not have expected to find in God.”

Lucarelli explains that, “the sacredness of the light in his art exposes his yearning for an unlikely miracle. It is a world of silent intimacy.” Ferroni’s works have been exhibited in many fora, notably the Venice Biennale editions of 1958, 1964, 1968 and 1982.

Sgarbi, speaking of Ferroni, last summer described him as, “a painter who in the last, extraordinary period of his life had such intense moments, true, and so poignant in the tension of the colour, to recall Vermeer, or a sublime but sadly forgotten Angelo Morbelli. A painter firmly immersed in thought, an atheist capable of representing the divine with a powerful spiritual intensity.”

Coccetta uses techniques ranging from simple oil to mixed techniques, including fresco painting. Shade and semi-darkness have always formed the basic elements of Coccetta’s work.

The museum said that “he embraces a style which makes light and various materials, the true protagonists of the work of art. However, his sojourn in the Maltese Islands, has enabled him to explore the Mediterranean light which has enhanced his exploration of life, spirit and experience.”

The exhibition is open to the public until Thursday, the 13th of June, Il-Hagar, is located in St George’s Square, and is open seven days a week from 9am-5pm free of charge.