TIRANA, July 2 – The National Art Gallery is commemorating one of Albania’s best female painters, late Sofia Zengo Papadhimitri, with an exhibition on her 100th birthday.
The exhibition will feature 80 paintings by the renowned artist from Korça, southeastern Albania, created in four decades from 1936 until 1976 when she passed away.
Sofia Zengo Papadhimitri and her sister, Androniqi Zengo were the first female professional painters in the history of Albanian visual arts creating realist 20th century paintings inspired by their icon painter predecessors. Along with her sister, she contributed to the painting of the local orthodox church in Korça in 1944-1945, soon after the end of the World War II.
“Influenced by family tradition, but also by academic education from impressionist Greek painter Spiros Vikatos who was her key professor at the Athens Academy where she graduated from in 1939, Sofia Papadhimitri consolidated the realistic style by creating portraits, landscapes and still nature. Her collection of 330 works is characterized by the artist’s love for nature and common people,” says the gallery.
The exhibition at the National Art Gallery will remain open from July 6 to 19.
