MATSEC IM Art case studies
MATSEC IM Art · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The MATSEC Intermediate Level Art examination is offered by the MATSEC Examinations Board, the examinations body of L-Università ta' Malta, and is listed on the Board's site alongside its Regulations, Guidelines and policies, Syllabi, Current Session Information, Applications, Past Papers, and Marking Schemes and Exemplars. Candidates should treat this page as a study aid, not as an official publication; the Board's own Syllabus and Past Papers sections are the authoritative sources for the current syllabus content, assessment structure, and session dates. The MATSEC IM Art case studies are 5 cases and about 3,979 words.
1Thirty Prints, Six Days: Deciding What Counts as the Edition
You are six days from the coursework submission deadline. Your theme is 'Harbour Workers' and you have cut a single A4 linocut, printed in black on 250 gsm Somerset Velvet, from which you must submit 30 accepted prints.
818 words, about 4 min2Hanging Fourteen Works in One Room With One Door
You are one of eight students hanging the end-of-year show in a college gallery: a single room 9.4 m long, 4.1 m wide and 2.6 m high, with one door at a short end, a radiator along one long wall and a track of six spotlights at 3.1 m. Between you there are 14 works: eleven paintings and drawings between 40 × 50 cm and 90 × 70 cm, one canvas 180 × 120 cm, one unframed charcoal drawing on thin paper, and one three-minute video needing a screen and headphones.
803 words, about 4 min3'Just Clean the Face and Paint In the Hand'
An elderly client brings in a family oil portrait, 60 × 45 cm, signed and dated 1874, on a plain-weave canvas with a single horizontal join. The paint is cupping and flaking along the join and around the left edge.
770 words, about 4 min4The Terracotta That Changed Colour Overnight
You have been commissioned to paint a 6 × 3 m mural on the north-facing courtyard wall of a café. The wall is rendered concrete, previously painted in a mid-grey masonry paint that is sound but chalky to the touch.
856 words, about 4 min5A Signature That Sits on Top of the Varnish
A local collector brings you a small oil on panel, 38 × 30 cm, said to be a 17th-century portrait of a bearded man. The panel has a vertical join; the craquelure is fine and even across the face but wider and lifting along the join.
732 words, about 4 min