He has piercing eyes that blaze with passion, a bubbling and overflowing energy, and a warm smile that melts mountains of ice.

Since 1961 he has carved wood and a niche for himself in Maltese contemporary art. A man with a determination of steel, with an expressive sensibility, a prolific sculptor whose insistent, constant and consistent creative application is an indispensable therapy, an elixir or restorative balm as vital as each breath he takes.

Anton Agius was born at Rabat in 1933. After the war, as a 12-year-old he excitedly sought a successful career in a frugal environment, primitive yet unspoilt. He was brought up in a picturesque spot among lush green valleys and spectacular cliffs.

He used to wander and play under the bastions of Mdina and on the rocky Mtarfa ridge, with frequent forays of impetuous explorative adventures to Mtahleb, Bahrija, Kuncizzjoni, Dingli and Buskett. He was used to natural pristine scenery of acute lyrical beauty that has receded into the shadows and become mere nostalgic shades of our childhood memories.

Anton remembers quite clearly birds of passage flying overhead in clean blue skies or among thick, heavy autumnal clouds. In our childhood we relished the circling and gliding of birds of prey, especially buzzards and hawks, over Rabat with the occasional sight of storks flying in V-formation. It was an enjoyable spectacle to watch these noble kites hurl themselves like rockets onto unsuspecting or resigned victims, or perform an aerobatic display in the slipstream of air currents.

Such experiences, coupled to the hootingof owls crying like babies in the stygian darkness of Mdinas massive bastions, left indelible memories that inspire his recurring beastiary: a large collection of kites, birds, animals and fish sculpted in olive wood. With astounding sensibility, in a romantic and lyrical vein, Anton is considered as natures poet.

I still remember Anton speaking with emotion in Howard Gardens in Rabat before he left our island to study sculpture in Rome. It was an argument full of sentiment, passion and spirituality anout reward and eternal punishment, the influence of our religious upbringing.

Anton reveres man. He regards man as engaged in a heroic and divine struggle for survival. Tragic yet noble, suffering victim turned hero with tangible honours heaped on him, but not superman. Torn with indecision, in an absurd conflict of choice between good and evil, between love and hatred, Antons suffering victim is transformed by atrocious pain into a glorious hero.

His nudes reveal excruciating pain in the process of emergingtriumphant over deathin their élan for life. They burst with a dynamic force, with tension exploding and breaking from the bole or core of his olive trunks, the material he sculpts with so much love.

When Anton returned in 1961 from his studies in London, the island was witnessing a frenetic infrastructural change previous to independence. Incidentally the artist had to take vital decisions that determined his career and dialectic.

A fairly large number of olive trees were uprooted to create space for extension works at the airport. Anton realised the potential of such a medium and on the advice of his English tutor sought to exploit it to the fullest.

He attacked the roots of alive trees with such fury and frenzy that eventually we came to associate his name to sculpture in olive wood, especially the interpretation of knotted olive wood roots, tortuous and tortured. A choice collection of this series can be viewed in a permanent display in the spacious corridors of the Cathedral Museum, Mdina.

The artist treats olive wood with great respect. He approaches the medium with the sacrality of executing an icon. He hardly tries to change the form or nature of the trunk or log, but prefers to observe it at legth and allow it to inspire, suggest and guide him in his interpretation. With great patience and perseverance Anton caresses the wood and brings out its essence, its soul or spirit.

Usually it is the nature of the trunk that determines the final result.

Anton was brought up in the workshops of woodcarvers. Initially he was guided by Samuel Bugeja and Guzeppi Galea. Ignazio Cefai and George Borg polished further the young mans talent.

In 1957 he won a scholarship to study in Rome under Pericle Fazzini and Michele Guerrisi. Later he studied in London under Frank Martin, Elizabeth Frink, Anthony Caro and Eduardo Paolozzi. He returned to Malta full of admiration for Henry Moore.

Antons figurative expression projects a world of animals and birds: eagles, hawks, buzzards, owls and horses. Yet the nude human figure dominates his oeuvre in its herois struggle for survival.