Constructing a Dream. Socialist Realism in Albanian Art

167 pp, color figures, pb, in Turkish-English bilingual.

The exhibition focuses on Albanian social realism through painting, poster and drawings, and it offers a selection of artworks produced under the dictatorship that aimed to spread socialism’s main principles among the proletarian.

The exhibition investigates the impact of the communist ideology on Albanian visual arts during the second half of the 20^th century. The selected artworks reflect the ideology that played an important role in the works’ dogmatic content. The exhibition offers an opportunity to become familiar with the culture and identity of Albanian people who had been isolated from the rest of the world for a long time, and centers around the daily life, working class, portraits of leadership, representations of the regime and a hopeful approach to upcoming generations. 

The exhibition catalogue features an essay titled Socialist Realism in Albanian Style by the art historian Ermir Hoxha, presenting an art historical analysis of the period, as well as a comprehensive text about the exhibition by the curator Artan Shabani, titled Constructing a Dream: Socialist Realism in Albanian Art. Texts are accompanied by a chronology entitled 20th Century Albanian Art and Politics, providing historical information.

CONTENTS

4 Foreword
Suna, İnan ve İpek Kıraç

8 Socialist Realism in Albanian Style
Ermir Hoxha

26 Constructing a Dream: Socialist Realism in Albanian Art
Artan Shabani

40 20th Century Albanian Art and Politics

54 Catalog