MODERN PAINTING by ALBANIANS in the BALKANS AFTER the 1990S Jeldz Asani
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 1753 ISSN 2229-5518 MODERN PAINTING BY ALBANIANS IN THE BALKANS AFTER THE 1990S Jeldz Asani ABSTRACT: With the collapse of the communist system and the return of the pluralistic political system in Albania, after 1991, visual arts began their journey without the tutoring of a uniform art tendency, as it was during the past 50 years of socialist realism in this country. It is certain that the development of Albanian art and painting in the past twenty-five years represents a development stage full of unexpected and sudden problems and paradoxes, but with individual cases and creativity that deserve special attention and, above all, should be treated as the current a rtis tic es tablis hed profile that s eeks the neces s ary attention. Despite the social circumstances that preoccupied Kosovo because of repression of the population, Kosovo artis ts did not s top their creative work at any moment. W ith the s tabilization of the political s ituation in K os ovo after 1999, the contemporary art of K os ovo ha s been again activated and got its ins titutional frameworks . P ainting by artists in Macedonia consists of different stages, styles and trends initiated by the historical development of E uropean fine art, and they have been carried out with a certain symbiosis of the successful imagination of artists. By the very opening of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tetovo in 1994, Albanian artists have become more active and present on the art scene in Macedonia, building their special style and creating certain new standard tendencies, all the way to postmodern art styles. Keywords:Painting, styles, Albanian artists, society,political system,traditional elements, With the collapse of the communist system art trends. It is certain that the development of and the return of the pluralistic political system in Albanian art and painting in the past twenty-five Albania, after 1991, visual arts have begun their years represents a development stage full of journey without the tutoring of a uniform art unexpected and sudden problems and paradoxes, tendency, as it was during the past 50 years of but with individual cases and creativity that deserve socialist realism in this country. More than in other special attention and, above all, should be treated as fields of art, in the fieldIJSER of painting one can note a the current artistic established profile that seeks the diverse and large creative context. A large number necessary attention. of individual exhibitions have been opened where There is a long list of Albanian painters who works that belong to various contemporary art have contributed to the development of tendencies were shown. Although at this stage in contemporary painting. In this context, one should Albania, authors can be found that still paint as in consider the creative transformation of painter the years and time of socialist realism, nevertheless Hasan Nallbani who, as an artist, was the best tone to contemporary painting is given by Albanian among six students of the first generation, painters who strive for a more modern stylistic graduated from the High Institute of Art in Tirana. expression. Albanian artists, recently isolated Hasan Nallbani belongs to a line of excellent within their own country, now face the world in colorists with consolidated individuality within order to assess themselves, and their work, in figuration and with exceptional expressionist particular. preferences. Albanian artists are now organized in various art associations, but surely according to His works of the 1990s are mostly works by their affinities and talent, and in context of another which the social situation is shown through platform that is adapted to contemporary and global expressionist figuration and monumental symbolism. IJSER © 2017 http://www. ijs er. org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 1754 ISSN 2229-5518 One of the most important cycles by works is the dominance of a solemn light and a Nallbani executed in the recent period is the issue silence of a coloristic tonality. Similar to Mark of the Exodus, the dramatic situation of Albania Rothko, he is engaged in that type of painting after the 1990s, as well as the cycle Unknown Times where - by means of a pure sensuality of colored connected with the original form of the current surfaces, dimensions, and a feeling of endless tradition of European expressionism, rich in expanding - the observer is immersed into the total existential pressures that transform colors and the experience of color. form of reality in expressing the subjective emotions of the artist. The art creation of Gazmend Leka is interesting, who before the 1990s executed art print With regard to the cycle of the art work techniques, was engaged with India ink in the field Movement and Escape, made in the period from of cartoons, while after the 1990s he started 2002 to 2005, art critic Francesco Pollini, among painting on wood, by using different materials in other things, emphasizes that these works are the execution of these pictures. opposed to any form of official rhetoric of realism; it is a cycle that develops in context of genuine Leka is an artist who is preoccupied with traces of the value of human freedom, including mystery, alchemy, theology, astrology, symbolism, passions, emotions, and hopes of a better future. philosophical theories, motifs and legends, as well This artist conveys not only the individual vision of as the magic of color. By using art graphic husband and wife with the help of figures of techniques on paper, he has been preoccupied with anonymous characters of people, but above all the mythology and all the phenomena of his people. social dimension, common destiny, epic aspects of His art creations are presented in the book covers a glorious drama.1 by multiple illustrations devoted to the works by the great Albanian writers such as Ismail Kadare and Similarly, Nallbani has been engaged in a Dritero Agolli, in context of his efforts in the field cycle of works called Women where, in figurative of illustrations of the Albanian book. manner, he closely associates the ideas of the author with the phenomenon of women in Albanian The history of the disintegrated countries, society. It can be said that the works by Nallbani injustices from the past and present, as well as the are evidence of a givenIJSER reality, filled with the chaos of transition in Albania, are strongly emotions of the artist, and with deep contradictions. embedded in the awareness of painter Leka. Leka is restrained harmoniously in the colorful treatment of Upon change of the political system in his works. He is directed to extreme graphicity; Albania in the 1990s, Ali Oseku became an from time to time, he creates graphic images important artist promoting the colored field in the dominated by a black color with delicate "stroke" visual arts of Albania. Oseku, in his first works, applications with white and red color.2 shows his abstractness by which he wants to challenge complex associations from the simplest His next cycle of pictures is called visual impulses. His works are characterized by Nostradamus where he sets conceptual light as such; at times, the quiet, monochrome communication and installation as part of his projections by the painter are broken up by sudden orientation, pressuring the observer to become part strokes sometimes vertically and sometimes of his creativity. The content and effect of light in horizontally. The essential characteristic of these the active presentation of "black" were selected because the artist wanted to come closer to his past experiments. 1 Introduction to the catalog about Hasan Nallbani - Francesco Polli, Levizje dhe ikje (2002-2005), Tirana, 2006. 2http://mezuraj.museum/paintings.al.html#stop IJSER © 2017 http://www. ijs er. org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 1755 ISSN 2229-5518 While in 2015, he created a cycle called from fear and misery and do not share their love Apple inspired by the history of myths and legends one with another.4 originating from his immediate environment. The artist himself says he has never met a fruit spoken Art critic Paul Ardenne pointed out: "Hila of like apples. Gratifying good and evil. In this shows primarily a sociopolitical reality degraded in today's Albania, a place of great differences and cycle, Gazmend Leka interprets the agreement and 5 disagreement about "fruits" not only to direct the great contrasts... " It means Hila presented the glimpse into the depth of the dark goal of human vision of Albania during the transition period. history where constellations shine, but also to make One of the efforts in finding relations us reflect on the ambiguity of the symbols of between certain traditional Albanian elements and various circumstances of a certain time.3 In the their treatment by the painting language that seeks body of work produced by Leka, evidently there is to execute coherence with contemporary European an effort to interweave elements into single context painting is seen in the pictures made by painters that denotes the universality and mystical character Bashkim Ahmeti and Artan Shabani. They support that is continuously treated by the painter. an interpretative sense of traditional signs that bind Edi Hila is one of these painters, who, the artists to their place by transposing it through although having lived and worked according to the artistic language; this language appears as a socialist-realism method, managed to discover more transformed reflection in cohesion with ambience individual arts loaded with values and ideas, fresh and environment and other realities. and sincere, which come to the fore in a very * * * important part of his life, igniting several sparks of light in the dark of societies of Albanian art.