TIRANA, May 2- He was a writer, journalist, translator, painter, above all sculptor. Odhise Paskali (1903-1985) however, never achieved his dream of studying sculpture despite numerous requests. He studied for philosophy and literature in Turin, Italy, and during these studies he had shown the passion for the art of sculpture. Thanks to all this expressive and creative diapers, in the early 1920s, Odhise Pascal was recognized as one of the greatest intellectuals of the time. As he published his essays in the press of time, he did not leave aside the painting and sculpture. They were distinguished for characteristic and special works, for expressive qualities that prevailed with a rare genius of solid materials, making them so beautifully readable from the eyes of everyone.
Here, in 1924, his scarce “The hungry” sculpture would make him known as the rarest artist in his youth. After this work, he was the sculptor who was entrusted with the most important works of national value, but also of other idyllic and lyric characters. He is the author of the à‡erà§iz Topulli monument in Gjirokastra, and dozens of monuments of freedom fighters, such as the “National Warrior” and others that were realized before the 1940s. And after many of them, one of his masterpieces comes along, the Skanderbeg’s Portrait, which is considered the most complete for the National Hero. While in the period 1932-1937, several sculptural monuments, author’s works, were set up in several cities of Albania. “Flamurtari” in Vlora, “Jeronim De Rada” and “Naim Frasheri” are works by Odhise Paskali.
But among his hundreds of creations, there are many that have disappeared. It suffices to remember the works “The hungry” and “Girl’s face” , who stayed at the King Zog I Palace and then ended up in Italy. That is why the works found in the “Minerva” of June 1935 are impressive and lead us to their footsteps. It is about original, accomplished works, and today it is not known where to find it. These are works that were evaluated at the time of the realization, which also points to the undisputed talent of the greatest Albanian sculptor.
In the “Minerva” newspaper of June 1935, the article titled “Five Works of Paskali” presents four new works, which also specify the time when the author made them, while also recognizing them with their image. More specially the article wrote about the Warrior-monument work, where only one fragment is published.
Minerva wrote “Here below we are publishing four works by our sculptor Odhise Paskali together with the head of the Warrior who rules the main road of Korca. We are convinced that the vast majority of people who see the monument in Korca won’t fail to feel how perfect this work from Paskali is. To see all the beauty of a sculptural work, you need to know how to make a living, in other words you need to have enough artistic talent. The expression of the Warrior’s face, in its entirety, is seen in the photograph we are publishing here: the object’s eye of the photographer – which in this case is Odhise himself – has captured all the details of this expression. Indeed, without the shadow of the photograph, the eyes of the Warrior would not be so penetrating and so dynamic, and without the shadow seen under the nose and under the lips, the face would not have that expression of the brave and voluntary Albanian who is given after the ideal on the Creation of a Free and Independent Albania. And the Albanian Warrior who, with a rifle in his hand and giving up any good of this world, as a family, a position, a comfort, and the other, was taught by the National Cause, could not have, in the concept of an artist with talented and soulful, but this noble face, alive at times with the willpower-full-fledged dynamism and the extreme melancholy seriousness seen in the admirable work of our artist. Paskali’s Warrior perpetuates, through generations, our only national epic of pre-independence, showing us alive to the representative of the tremendous movement of idealists who worked and were sacrificed to secure the Freedom and Independence dreaming for us of the uninitiated theirs.”
