Biography

Joseph Paul Cassar is an art historian who specializes in the pioneers of modern art of the Mediterranean island of Malta. He has written and published extensively on the subject. He lectures regularly on different aspects of this subject in Malta and abroad. Currently he lectures mostly in the United States, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, Johns Hopkins University, Towson University and Notre Dame University of Maryland, in Baltimore. 

He has lectured and conducted art tours to special groups at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland and at the National Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, both in Washington DC, among others.

He has designed online art courses for the New York Times Knowledge Network and is currently engaged in designing art courses for the University of Maryland Global Campus where he is Professor of Art at the Department of Graphic Communications.

In Malta he served as a free-lance art critic for “The Daily News” (1978-1981) and “The Times of Malta” (1997-2000), covering major cultural events in Europe as well as key art exhibitions. He served as curator for exhibitions at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity between 2000-2004 and developed an international Artists in Residence Programme in partnership with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, USA.

Photo by Morton Katz 

In Malta he lectured at the Junior College Msida as well as at the Art Unit, Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Education, and at the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta. He is often consulted on Modern and Contemporary Art in Malta by Heritage Malta and its Museum collection.