The Picture in the Picture.

Good evening to you,

So, this is something I always love to see. When we went to the National Gallery of Art in Tirana we were browsing through the paintings and sculptures, most of them with a socialist and communist theme.

One painting although caught my eye. And it wasn't because I thought it was espeacially beautiful, but something about it seemed familiar. Then I saw what it was. In the first room I had allready seen a picture which was now included in the picture I was now looking at.

So this is the painting I was looking at. "Në studio" which means in the studio was created 1979 by Vilson Kilica, an Albanian painter. He was also the first director of the Academy of Arts in Tirana, the capital of Albania, in 1966. So, back to my discovery. Here you see a painting which shows us the studio of a painter, who is also shown here, most probably Kilica himself. He is working on a piece and there are numerous other paintings hanging on the wall. There is also another man in the painting who takes up most of the space but that wasn't what I saw first. My eye immediately went to the landscape painting in the middle of the picture. The first of the three.

It seemed familar and indeed it was. 20 minutes earlier I had seen that exact painting in another wing of the museum.

It's a painting by Vangjush Mio (1891-1957), named "Sigeni i Pogradecit" which means the lake of Progradec. Mio is one of the most known Albanian artists and he is also known as the first impressionist painter of Albania. And indeed there are lots of parallels to the famous impressionists like Monet and Cezanne. The theme of the landscape, the light, dusty coloration, the characteristic style. 

So, this painting, now at the Gallery here in Tirana, was most probably in the studio of Kilica. Of course the frame changed, but it is the same picture here as it is in the painting. Isn't that great? The artist as a collector - love it!

Monets Masterpiece!

Bonjour mes amis de l'art,

The Musée de l‘Orangerie is one of my favorite places so far! It is so incredibly beautiful, that you actually do not want to leave - ever! Of course I‘m talking about the two oval rooms where the astonishing paintings by Claude Monet are displayed. The paintings of the famous waterlilies were actually painted especially for those rooms. It is wonderful. I won‘t bore you with details because this is really something everyone needs to see for themselves. So here are some pictures to give you a little preview.

In addition to the waterlilies you can view the collection by the famous artpatron Paul Guillaume which includes Matisse, Renoir, Picasso, Cézanne and Modigliani. It is an overviewable selection of high quality works that really leaves you wanting more if anything else. Wonderful. 

At the time there was alo a temporary exhibtion about Debussy and how different artists influeneced his musical career and work. A really well organized and fluent exhibition - much like Debussys music itself. Quite intruiging actually. There were pieces of art, paintings and such, artefacts of that times like musical instruments, letters and notes plus photographs. And everything was of course accompaigned with Debussys beautiful classical music. If I hadn‘t walked right to that exhibition I probably wouldn‘t have chosen it, but now that I‘ve seen it I‘m glad I did. If that makes sense. Go see it is what I mean.