FLASH
Shkruar nga Ani Jaupaj
The sea is not only the balance of internal relationships, as the Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto says. It can alienate you for the rest of your life. Rakip made Shabani a sea painter. So many decades have passed, yet Shabani still tells the same story, with the same young eyes of a child who once escaped punishment by diving into the water, about his first relationship with the sea. They always seem like proud stories, and all artists who were able to develop themselves from their relationship with nature are, in fact, privileged, especially if the window of childhood looks out onto the sea.
Perhaps a film would better convey the wandering of a boy who, to escape his father's scolding, jumped into the water, but not as an escape to adventures with his peers. As a child, Shabani revealed himself only to the water, only it saved him, and the sea helped him, giving him what he needed to become the artist he is today. Rakip Shabani spent his lonely hours in the tunnel in Vlora, with some pencils and paper with him. His house was nearby, so fate had given him the solution.
He remembers his first watercolors from the fifth grade, never thinking that, one day, painting would not only be the salvation of a teenager's thoughtful hours, but of his entire life. Before a message that I wanted to write some time ago to an important figure in European culinary history, I didn't know what to write.
I consulted him and the man who knew him told me: "Write very simply, what you think, because he too is simple, like all great people"! I remembered from the conversation with Shabani, because perhaps when you become the man you are today, from such great influences, such as nature, you always remain humble, as before things that you are eternally grateful for. Because wisdom, a kind of wise attraction and simplicity, remain the elements that art and artists lack today.
The episode that told me how in a museum in Vienna, he had asked his daughter to take a picture of him in front of a canvas of the world history of painting, just to see and understand how "small" he was, must show time, how many bubbles he is scattering. The same size with thought is also expressed in the simplicity of his watercolor.
The painter's fate did not end with the gift that nature gave him!
"When I was not yet able to appreciate or recognize him, the great painter Abadurrahim Buza came to Vlora, to look for talented students for the Artistic Lyceum. Neither I nor my family had ever thought about this direction that my life could take! I painted to dream, to get away, without being aware of what I was doing and how I was doing it. During one of the long hours in the tunnel, the professor approaches me and asks me, what I was doing and why I had not entered the competition"?
This was the defining event in Shaban’s life. Buza addressed the Executive Committee, without giving them many alternatives: “If you don’t send me Shaban, don’t send me another student.” The Committee representatives quickly found common ground with Shaban’s father, and soon after, his professional relationship with art began.
"First, they enrolled me in Sculpture, where I studied for 5 years, although I never gave up watercolor, because it seemed even more practical to me. It was again Professor Buza, who encouraged me to continue my studies in painting, but this did not happen immediately. First, I was appointed a teacher, although I was younger than my students and did not know how to behave."
Nature helped again. Rakip Shabani was appointed a teacher in the village of Novoselë in Vlora. The milkmaids he encountered there encouraged him to devote himself to painting with such dedication that he produced enough work for an exhibition.
“My first exhibition was in a cowshed.” From there, from the “wind” of real life, Shabani’s career began. Although the first presentation of his works at the House of Culture was not successful, he managed to learn a lesson. When his father asked him what he gained from all this effort, he had the answer ready: “I gained insults and learned from them.”
He learned so much that when Vilson Kilica went to his studio, he did not hesitate to take 35 works, which ended up at the Writers' League and from there, in an exhibition at the National Theater.
Xhevahir Spahiu's writing in "Voice of the People" was the voice that was needed to bring the painter to the right circle. After this distance from the time of the lyceum, the Academy of Arts came. Rakip Shabani never escaped the sea, he was made of it and expressed his consciousness in all his works.
Even when a portrait at the Academy had a brown cloth as a background, Rakipi the student painted it blue. Sali Shijaku did not escape the alienation of the composition. “Are you from Vlora,” he asked.
Prej këtej nisi rrugëtimi i gjatë i piktorit Rakip Shabanaj në të gjitha format, sepse ai nuk po rritej në pikturë vetëm prej studimeve apo përvojës. Punoi dhe punon siç e nisi: prej natyrës. “E kam shëtitur tri herë Shqipërinë në këmbë! Kam marrë motive gjithfarësh prej saj. Gjithmonë kam menduar që artistin e bën natyra. Mirëpo, gjatë njohjes sime me natyrën njoha edhe poezinë popullore, njoha legjendat, arkeologjinë, të gjitha këto e pasuruan pikturën”, një tjetër kënaqësi nga takimi me Shabanin, janë pikërisht vargjet që i rrëshqasin nga vitet pa asnjë pengesë nga kujtesa.
NUDOT DHE BYROJA
Me asnjë piktor që ka studiuar e është rritur profesionalisht në regjimin e shkuar, nuk mund t’i shpëtosh temës së nudove, siç nuk u shpëton dot ngjarjeve të fshehta, sepse nudot ishin të tilla.
“Në Akademi kemi punuar me nudon, edhe me modele, por sigurisht ato ngeleshin të pa ekspozuara, ishte si një punë e fshehtë që megjithatë në shkollë nuk trajtohej si e ndaluar. Besoj që fondi i Akademisë, duhet t’i ketë ende”. Nga ana tjetër, ato që ekspozoheshin, por punoheshin nën mbikëqyrjen e partisë, ishin portretet e Byrosë Politike.
“Pas përfundimit të Akademisë së Arteve, punova me portretet e anëtarëve të Byrosë. Portretin e Enverit, e kisha bërë me flokë më të gjatë nga ç’i kishte. Kështu më erdhi dhe të tillë e bëra. Kuptohet që më thirrën menjëherë nga Komiteti i Partisë, për të më evidentuar si piktorin që e kishte bërë udhëheqësin të paqethur. U përpoqa të jepja argumentet e mia artistike, por të mbyllej goja. Megjithatë, nuk pata penalizime në punën time”.
Sepse fokusi i punës së Shabanit, nuk ishte asnjëherë politika. Depërtimi në dejet e historisë së vendit, duke i prekur vetë me dorë, dëgjuar me veshë e duke shkelur në të gjitha anët, nga jugu në veri, e pasuroi në të gjitha pikëpamjet dhe i dhuroi pikturës së tij madhështinë e shpirtit të njeriut.
Sot mundet që bota të ketë harruar atë që thoshte Van Gogh, se: “nuk ka asgjë më artistike se të duash njeriun, se dashurisë mund t’i ndryshojë pamja, por jo esenca”, por ka ende piktorë si Rakip Shabani, që të gjitha këtyre ndjesive u kanë dhënë formë me penela dhe ngjyra. Po, të kaltra!
“GALLERY 43”
“Gallery 43” është galeria personale e piktorit Rakip Shabani. Në të janë të ekspozuara rreth 100 vepra të autorit, që i takojnë një periudhe kohore nga viti 1969 deri në 2020.
Përveç veprave të ekspozuara në këtë galeri, pikturat e Rakip Shabanit janë të ekspozuara edhe në Galerinë Kombëtare të Arteve në Tiranë dhe në Vlorë. Gjithashtu, veprat e tij janë ekspozuar në disa vende si Angli, Amerikë, Argjentinë, Japoni, Greqi, Gjermani, Rumani, Bullgari, Itali, Francë, Brazil etj. “Gallery 43”, ka marrë këtë emër, pasi edhe vetë piktori ka lindur në vitin 1943.
Në këtë mënyrë emërtimi i saj është i personalizuar dhe i lidhur drejtpërdrejt me krijimtarinë e tij. Shabani është nderuar disa herë më çmime kombëtare, një prej të cilave ka qenë për “Nënën Labe”.
The landscapes in the backgrounds of the compositions of the cycle about Ali Pasha Tepelena, "Who Brought Doruntina", "The Craftsmen Washing", have always been appreciated and highlighted as treasures, where the author not only skillfully conveys the power and grandeur of Ali Pasha, but also conveys all the power of lyrical tones.
Using the legend “Who brought Doruntina?” where people run away and fly into the sky, life or death takes them, the author has tastefully constructed the composition “Constantine and Doruntina.” In addition to the sea, Vlora and the motifs of its surroundings, the painter’s creativity does not lack paintings of the capital. In them, the numerous details of the Tabakave Bridge and the Tabakave neighborhood are noticeable.
These paintings are expressed in black and white, but it should be noted that in none of the author's paintings are there shadows, as the author has an organic connection with light and expresses it in every painting.
"There is only color and light in my paintings, the shadow has been completely removed." In addition to the historical part, the author has also presented urban life with the cycle of street vagrants. In each of their portraits, the history of the "barbons" of Tirana, as the author calls them, is also expressed. Memorie.al
Lini një Përgjigje