After 24 years, well-known Albanian painter Llambi Blido returned with a personal exhibition at the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana on March 5, 2016. Among the 100 paintings exhibited, the majority of them are made after the 90s while a few paintings were also made after 2001, when the painter lost his sight.
“Llambi Blido is part of the first generation of students who graduated at the Higher Institute of Arts, Tirana in the mid 60s. Although his creativity has not been numerous, and the painter has had a limited number of exhibitions, he is one of the most important and outstanding Albanian artists since the second half of the twentieth century,” National Gallery of Arts director Artan Shabani said at the press conference.
“The exhibit opening today has no retrospective character. It is a collection of the artist’s creations, especially after the 1990s, and a few paintings made shortly before and after the artist lost his sight completely in 2001 due to glaucoma. With this current physical condition, master Blido enters a rare pantheon of artists such as Degas, Manet, Georgia O’ Keeffe, and Sigmar Polke, who continued their creation even after they lost they sigh completely, or partially,” Shabani added.
According to the exhibition curator Ylli Drishti, who gave an overview of Llambi’s life and creativity at the press conference, the exhibition of the painter in Tirana, is a journey among delicate but potent colors of an original artist with a unique style.
Llambi Blido, himself explained all the factors that have influenced and impacted his way of doing art and admitted that he is a constant admirer of French painters such as Henri Matisse. “When an artist comes with his art and creativity at the National Gallery of Arts, he enters a race with the Albanian art history, with the history of painting, sculpture, drawing […] This is very interesting for the author, the artist, but it is also interesting to the public,” said Blido.
“Artists themselves, from their practice, working from one work to another, being influenced by each other, created a broad front, which processed some prefabs, in the form of recipes, from which you couldn’t get out, because if you did, you would not be a part of the socialist realism anymore,” Blido added..
Llambi Blido was born in Strum, Roskovec in March 1939. After graduating from the Polytechnic “7 Nentori” in Tirana, Department of Geology – Mining,l, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Graphic Arts Academy “Rjepin “in Leningrad, St. Petersburg.
During the period between 1987-1991, Blido was appointed as inspector of fine art at the Ministry of Culture. From 1992 onwards he continued his artistic journey opening several exhibitions within Albania but not n=only. He exhibited his works for the first time in 1971, while in 1998, together with Vilson Kolica, Kujtim Buza, Agim Zajmi, and Sali Shijaku, founded the annual national painting exhibition called “Nentori” (November) which opened at the National Historical Museum in Tirana.
The exhibition will stay open until March 13, 2016.
