Harry Alden - Maltese artist

Mgarr, Malta

• Amongst many of his siblings, Alden was born on the 15th December 1929, Malta. He had two hobbies that he pursued as a young lad, soccer and art, but there came a time when he could no longer play soccer, so he focused all his leisure time on art. Soon after he began attending a governmental art school; to which he had some academic problems. 
• At the age of 10, World War II broke out and havoc broke loose on his family as many other Maltese families had. They had to pack their bags and leave home. They moved from Valletta to Marsa and from Marsa to Mgarr. The change of location probably effected young Alden from the drastic changed of a busy life in a town to the quiet life of a countryside of the small town. Surrounded by a mass of fields and valleys, fascination struck Alden as he fell in love with the way the town's folk lived. It was those quiet moments in Harry Alden's life that he represented and painted later on. During the war his older brother, George, helped him suffice his artistic talent by mimicking the film starts that they so highly admired.After the turmoils of the war were finally over, the Alder family settled down in Sliema a hugely chaotic town, even back then!
• He then furthered his studies in England at the age of 33. He attended the Croydon College of Arts in Surrey (UK). Upon returning back to his homeland in 1966 he began to scout schools and teach the arts wherever he went. 

"Self Portrait"  1968

• This painting struck out to me because at first glance I miss took him for Edgar Allan Poe, but then realising that its actually the artist himself, I enjoyed the style to which he uses. The colour gives the whole composition an overall sadness, although his expression seems to be muffled by the harsh lines in his Pop-art like style, there is no definition of his mouth or around the eyes. Therefore this effect has an overall gloomy feel. The colours to which he uses are very green and cold, but he also has added reds and purples, and the way they are forming up from the bottom half of the painting to the face of his own portrait seems to resemble way typical Maltese fields. Perhaps he feels nostalgic about his childhood house in Mgarr. 

"Behind a Glass Plane" 1990

"The Wooden Blind" 1996

•  Apart from these two paintings being both nudes, they have one thing in common, the censoring. In the first nude portrait, Alden is viewing the female body from behind a glass, therefore making the image itself almost distorted. This effect is done by the way he painted over the figure, changing certain colours to the reflection of the glass. On the other hand, the two women from the second painting seem to be more at ease, they are relaxed, but they are covered by the wooden blind. This automatically gives you the impression that Alden has painted through a window, leaving the outside world alone, by just focusing his view on the image within the window itself. The bright colours in the background differ from the colour scheme of the first portriat because they are much brighter and full of life. It almost has a hidden fauvist feeling or cubist, because of the placement of colours and such. 

Source:

Emmanuel Fiorentino, 2003. Harry Alden IX, Printed in San Gwann in collaboration with Bank Of Valletta.