TIRANA, June 17 – A sculpture by internationally renowned Albanian artist, late Ibrahim Kodra, has been placed in the front garden of Albania’s central bank building in the central square of Tirana.
“The sculpture was under possession by an Albanian collector who has two of Kodra’s sculptures in his private collection,” says Ardian Isufi, an Albanian contemporary artist who describes Kodra as “the beginning of a new civilization in Albania.”
Back in 2012, sixty original paintings by Ibrahim Kodra were displayed at the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana in one of the most special events commemorating Albania’s 100th independence anniversary. Named “Albania Fantastica” after a cubist painting Kodra created in 1997, the exhibition featured works in different techniques and genres created from 1940 to 2006.
Albanian post-cubist painter Ibrahim Kodra spent his adult life in Italy’s Milan. His collection includes some 6,000 pieces of art. He was widely admired not only among Albanians and Italians for his modern abstractionist art, but throughout Europe and worldwide.
Born in Ishem village outside Durres in 1918, at the age of 20 Ibrahim Kodra went to Italy to study at the Fine Arts University, where he won a scholarship from the Italian government as an emerging talent.
In 1944, he opened his first studio in Milan. Six years later, he performed frescoes in public and private buildings in Milan. One of his most successful exhibitions was held in 1954, when he exhibited along with Picasso, Rouault, Dufy, Matisse, Modigliani and other artists to the exhibition of design and contemporary engraving of Chiavari (Genoa).
Ibrahim Kodra died in his apartment in Milan in February 2007 at the age of 88 but was buried in his birthplace of Ishem, outside Durres, under his will.
His works are currently on display in the Museum of Vatican, in the Chamber of Deputies (House of Representatives) of the Italian Parliament in Rome, and in private collections all around the world.
