Introduction to
Classical Albanian Painting
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An Albanian school of painting first arose in the early decades of the twentieth
century with the works of Kolë Idromeno (1860-1939) of Shkodra, Spiro Xega
(1876-1953) of Korça, and of Andrea Kushi (1884-1959) and Simon Rrota (1887-
1961) of Shkodra. Among other well-known classical painters of the twentieth
century are: Vangjush Mio (1891-1957), Abdurrahim Buza (1905-1986), Zef
Kolombi (1907-1949), Sadik Kaceli (1914-2000), Nexhmedin Zajmi (1916-1991)
and Guri Madhi (1921-1988). Young students in Shkodra were probably the first
to exhibit their drawings to the public, but it was Vangjush Mio who in Korça in
1920 held what might be regarded as the first personal art exhibition in
Albania. Mio went on to show his works again in Korça in 1926 and in Tirana in
1928, thus becoming the most successful early Albanian painter. It was then in
May 1931 that the first national art exhibition opened its doors at the Café
Kursal in Tirana, in which most major painters and sculptors took part. This
exhibition proved to be a great success. That same month, a Friends of Art
Society (Shoqnia Miqt’ e Artit) was formed with a view to creating a national
gallery (pinakoteka kombëtare). An art school (shkolla e vizatimit), managed
initially by Andrea Kushi and then formally by Italian artist Mario Ridola, was
founded in Tirana in January 1932 which gave needed impetus to younger
painters. Further major exhibitions were held in June 1942 and, under the
nascent communist regime, in April 1945. Albanian painting, though modest in
its achievements by European standards, could rely upon a solid tradition by
this time.
The communist takeover at the end of the Second World War caused great
upheaval in Albanian painting in the coming years, as it did in virtually all
other spheres of activity. Some earlier painters withdrew from public life.
Others tried to adapt to the new circumstances by producing works of the
‘socialist art’, but it is generally agreed that few works in the following thirty
years had any sustained aesthetic value. Particularly difficult for Albanian
artists was the decade of political turmoil from the cultural revolution of 1966-
1967 to about 1975, when many painters were imprisoned or interned and
many works destroyed. A zenith of painting in the socialist tradition was
reached in the late 1970s and 1980s when revolutionary and nationalist fervour
managed to inspire many artists to experiment cautiously in new directions.
Though the works of this period were virtually all in the service of propaganda,
many of them still have an aesthetic appeal. It was also in the socialist period
that new institutions for the promotion of the arts were created. The Jordan
Misja Academy was founded in Tirana in 1945 and similar schools followed in
other towns. In September 1960, a Superior Institute of Figurative Art (Instituti i
Lartë i Arteve Figurative) was created in Tirana that in 1991 became part of the
Academy of Sciences.
In Kosovo, it was only really after the Second World War that strong impetus
was given to the arts, when the country was part of socialist Yugoslavia. The
seeds of visual art were sown by the School of Art in Peja, founded in 1949. The
best students of this school went on to study at academies of fine arts in
Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and, later, Sarajevo. In the 1960s, a fine arts
department was founded at the teachers’ college in Gjakova and, in 1974, an
Academy of Fine Arts was established in Prishtina. Painting was initially very
much an academic tradition, with most painters being professors with their
own studios. Painting, sculpture, design and the graphic arts flourished in the
1980s, but with the gradual political and economic disintegration of Kosovo in
the 1990s and with the “cleansing” of Albanians from institutions and galleries
under Serb rule, many Albanian artists fled abroad to Italy, Germany and
France, etc. It has only been since the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 that individual
artists have been able to enjoy success in Kosovo itself.
Since the fall of the dictatorship(s), Albanian artists are now able to give free
rein to their creative impulses, both at home and abroad, though they have,
compared to the communist period, been deprived of institutional support. The
largest collection of Albanian art is that of the National Gallery in Tirana, with
minor collections in Korça, Shkodra and Prishtina.