“Socialist Realism. Creation of the Models of the New Man 1960 – 1986” is the fourth section. It focuses deliberately on the most substantial aspect of this art, that of creating the “New Man” and the dissemination of socialist propaganda, which glorified the regime in power. Through its fifth section: “Formalist Painting of Socialist Realism 1969-1974”, the National Gallery dedicates an entire wing to the so called “Formalist Painting” of the ‘70s for the first time ever, subjecting this important period to detail and shedding new light on what is known as the “Liberalization Period of the ‘70s”, which made a significant contribution to the visual arts.
“This significant period had never been studied before and I wanted to emphasise it, in order to show that this development was not an isolated case involving only one artist, a single individual, but it was a Zeitgeist involving groups of young painters and sculptors. The artistic works of this period are very interesting,” said Shima. He added that “this period was a strange reaction to the lack of freedom and people’s long isolation, which led the painters involved to ‘invent’ an Albanian formula in painting which entailed approaching the subject of socialist realism through a modernist style. This endeavour did not last long but fortunately left behind a collection of works as a legacy to these surprising efforts which can be deemed sui generis an Albanian mutation.”
The last section “Contemporary Painting and Sculpture 1989 – 2001”, alongside its subsection “Elements of Modern Painting in the years 1960 – 1970”, tries to document the changes in Albanian art soon after the end of socialism in the last decade of the 20th century, and the move towards ‘pure’ contemporary art. At the same time, this last section explores the modernist elements that found their way into Albanian art during the ’60s – ’70s period, concentrating on small, but decisively important details which got lost within the suffocating and ponderous framework of Socialist Realism. “There is the false impression that Albanian painting embraced modern characteristics after the 1990s but in fact, the first signs became evident in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Shima said.
The challenging initiative for displaying the collection in such a way was Shima’s. “I wanted to reflect the present state of Albanian art through its past,” he said.
The difference is perceptible when you visit the carefully renovated and refurbished premises of the Gallery, an institution which moved into the existing building in 1974, but underwent a radical change in concepts and infrastructure only in 2008, the year when Shima was appointed director. The new collection’s approximately 200 paintings and sculptures are displayed in six pavilions across the three floors of the National Gallery, greatly increasing the number of local visitors and particularly boosting the number of foreign visitors.
“The structured approach currently employed for displaying the collection of the National Gallery makes it easy to understand and attractive to the public, especially foreigners. The collection attempts to reflect the dynamics of Albanian art during a whole century with its problems, causes, circumstances and delays and also, why not, even misunderstandings here and there, misunderstandings which almost turn into an accompanying feature of this process,” said Shima. To him, analysing the problems of Albanian art in the past and exploring these is an important process which helps to understand the contemporary Albanian art scene. “I think that such reflections, triggered by the way this important collection is displayed, are essential in order to grasp the problems in Albanian art. It will possibly help to avoid repeating them again as well,” he added.
