Oliver Friggieri and his doodles
Professor Oliver Friggieri is one of Malta’s foremost intellectuals and his works in Maltese, English and Italian are well known and eagerly read. The latest book Oliver Frig
gieri: Sketches & Poems is edited by Prof. Victor Grech and the proceeds from sales go to the Save and Support Trust.
One of the main attractions of this book are the sketches by Prof. Friggieri which were discovered by Lea Hogg. Prof. Friggieri donated some 48 original pieces for this project.
There is also an original interview with Prof. Friggieri, one of several interviews by Lea Hogg in the book which ends with two of his unpublished poems: Il-Mis
toqsija and L-Ahhar Kelma.
There are also interesting Notes by several personalities.
The main part of the book is divided into nine themes: Books, Candles, Abstraction, Trees, Rubble Walls, Pastoral, Figures, Still Life and Crucifixation. As Prof. Grech says in the Introduction: “The result of this book is a work of mixed media that includes the written word, sketches, drawings, paintings and photographs.”
Prof. Grech also tells readers that this book is an interdisciplinary foray in many ways.” I am the editor of this book but I am also a doctor but I also paint and am a keen photographer. I was taught how to paint by the wellknown Maltese artist John Borg Manduca, to whom I will remain forever in debt.
The idea for this book came about after Lea Hogg mentioned that Prof. Oliver Friggieri sketches. She suggested that I meet him and that we work on something together, incorporating his poems as a fundraiser…Oliver showed me many wonderful sketches, part of a collection he had amassed during his lifetime.”
Prof. Friggieri’s daughter Sara Brincat Friggieri writes in her Note: “One of the early childhood memories that remains imprinted in my mind is that of my father writing, typewriting f course. For days and nights, the sound of clicking must have been my first idea of rhythm. I recall him looking out of the window and defining and interpreting the rhythm of the birds chirping outside…As a child I remember my father sketching on random scraps of paper. Nowadays he sketches for my son and daughter. It is the peace and enjoyment that these sketches bring him that will always remain with me. At the time we saw them as very simple sketches. I never dreamt that these sketches would develop into numerous ones and eventually into a collection, of which a part of is presented to the public for the very first time in this book. Indeed many people will be surprised to discover this other talent of his…”
In his interview with Lea Hogg Prof Friggieri had this to say about writing: “I would like to go on writing, as I have been doing since my childhood. I had once tried to call it a day, but it did not work. So, expressing oneself through a hopefully well thought out and coherently constructed book is a marvellous experience.”
Here is a quote from Prof. Ivan Callus’ Note who writes that Prof. Friggieri is very much present in his sketches: “… very much himself
i n them just as much as he is in his poems and essays and interviews… to gaze upon the sketches is to see what a mind can set itself on when it is seemingly diverted from what the world might perceive as its primary calling…”
There are translations by Godfrey Grima, artwork and photography by Victor Grech, drawings by Richard England and reflections by Arthur Lyon Dahl.
There are a number of inspiring quotations in the book. Here are some:
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Alfred Lord Tennyson
“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” Eleanor Roosevelt