In Budapest (Hungary), Guri Madhi, painter and one of the most important Albanian artists of socialist realism, passed away in the second half of the 20th century. He was born in Korça in 1921. He studied painting in Saint Petersburg, Russia (1950–1956). He created and produced historical compositional paintings for a long time, initially with an impressionist spirit, bringing an innovation to Albanian art of the 1950s-1970s. The painter Guri Madhi appears in the exhibitions of that time with an impulsive temperament, a sensitive draftsman, and a painter of warm brushstrokes and flickering light. Author of portraits and landscapes from different areas of Albania. Guri Madhi has been honored with the title “Painter of the People” (1976). The art gallery in Korçë, as well as streets in Tirana and Korçë bear his name. The work of Guri Madhi is part of important world encyclopedias, such as the Benezit Dictionary of Artists and the Oxford Dictionary. (In the photo: The Great Work “Homeland calls us,” 1982, oil on canvas.)
Text: Ylli Drishti, 100 years of Tirana in painting; 1920–2020, “Mediaprint,” Tirana, 2020, page 92.
Photo: © http://galeriakombetare.gov.al/en/collection/guri-madhi.shtml
Graphic processing: AHCF
