Paris Is an Eternal Inspiration to All Artists

Ibrahimović notes that today it is difficult to be artistically distinctive through one’s paintings.

Aldemar Ibrahimović was born in Rožaje in 1962. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 1986, in the class of Professor Radoslav Tadić. He is a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro. To date, he has held over twenty solo exhibitions and participated in several group exhibitions. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for painting, including the “Milutinović, Stijović, Lubarda” Award.

“We are, quite simply, saturated with visual information and experiences offered to us through various technological achievements. Of course, while today’s means of communication and mass media can be a complicating factor, I believe they are immensely beneficial for the general knowledge of any individual—and certainly for an artist. This is especially true for a painter who lives in a small community that lacks museums, theatres, galleries, and major cultural events. However, above all, I believe that in the formation of an individual’s visual expression, persistence and diligent work are of crucial importance. A painter must be deeply invested in each of his canvases and work as if it were the last thing he would ever do. He must ceaselessly search for what is new and interesting, and even more compelling, and, at the same time, seek a foothold in proven values. Often, that is tradition,” Ibrahimović explains.

Kemal Musić: What guided you toward landscape painting, which predominates in your work?

“As a student in Sarajevo, I began working on urban landscapes, which I framed and painted in an ‘academic’ manner. This, in a sense, ‘guided’ me to continue dedicating myself to landscape as a motif, but I began to treat it differently. Academician Mladen Lompar, in a critical review of my exhibition in Podgorica, summed it up in just two words: ‘recomposed landscape’. It is a very striking phrase, suggesting that Lompar truly understood my landscapes. In fact, I transpose natural structures and textures into a visual expression that is my own. For me, landscape is merely a pretext; I place and arrange the vistas into a new order and new colour values.”

Kemal Musić: To what extent has the stunning nature of Rožaje influenced you as a painter?

“The space that surrounds me is unique and impressive. And it isn’t merely because it is my native place. Diverse landscapes—the mountainous, wild, and unconquerable as much as the tame and idyllic ones—draw me toward painting. The Rožaje landscape has, so to speak, ‘infected’ me; yet, for a long time now, I have also been influenced by the landscapes of other regions I have seen and experienced during my extended stays in Greece, Turkey, and France… Each, in its own way, has left a profound, powerful impression on me.”

Kemal Musić: Did any particular painter influence your work?

“Of course. Some painters influenced me as a young artist, each in their own way. I graduated from the Academy in Sarajevo in the class of Professor Radoslav Tadić, who was exceptionally skilled at passing on knowledge to his students without imposing his own thematic preferences, which is highly commendable. However, the late Radenko Mišević, a renowned painter and former dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, had a great influence on me. I was fortunate enough to have him as a professor of Theory of Form; coincidentally, his major retrospective exhibition took place at the Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo at that time. I was mesmerized by what I saw! Ultimately, however, the fruit of my work—by which I primarily mean my visual expression—is the result of the cumulative knowledge I have acquired through my education and study visits—through exploring and ‘analysing’ the world’s great museums, galleries, and major exhibitions. Equally important are encounters with other painters, as well as stays in art colonies—what we might call the ‘totality of everyday art’. That is essential. Experience and work, and then more work, build upon everything else.”

Kemal Musić: You have held solo exhibitions in Paris and visited many museums and galleries in that ancient capital of world culture. What impressions do you bring back from France?

“I exhibited at the Cité Internationale des Arts gallery in September 2005. For me, and I believe for any artist, that is a dream that rarely comes true. Paris is an eternal inspiration for all artists. It is something one must experience firsthand before one forms an opinion or judgment.

The gallery where I exhibited is in the very heart of the old city, some 100 to 150 metres from the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. That fact alone speaks to what it feels like to be in that space—imagine dozens of galleries in the immediate vicinity, all those people who truly understand art, then various contacts, acquaintances, and gatherings… Visits to museums and galleries—all of it forms an indescribable experience that I can hardly put into words.”

Kemal Musić, June 13, 2008.