Tamed Impressions

At the “Sopoćanska viđenja” Gallery in Novi Pazar, works by the young painter from Rožaje, Aldemar Ibrahimović, have been on display since 24 February. Born in 1962, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 1986. He is a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro and of the Artistic Council of the same association. Before Novi Pazar, this painter had exhibited in Sarajevo, Titograd, and Rožaje.

At the Novi Pazar gallery, Aldemar Ibrahimović has exhibited some twenty compelling works, divided into two cycles: “Rooftops and “Landscapes of the Ibar Canyon. Combining a traditional realist understanding of things with an inevitable modern inclination toward the dissolution of form, the painter has created a world of deepened pictorial realism, an original way of reconciling the old and the new. The two cycles of paintings, although different at first glance, essentially follow a single idea: to express, through pictorial means, a relationship to the object world, to give it form, and to arrive at aesthetic satisfaction. This last element — the aesthetic impression, the vividness and sincerity of the conception — makes this exhibition one of the finest at the “Sopoćanska viđenja” Gallery. The paintings of the Rožaje artist represent a poetic experience of the timeless beauty of unspoiled landscapes, of the interlacing of stone forms, and of the music of the colours of grasses and flowers through the changing seasons and the alternation of light and shadow. The artist’s imagination intertwines and alternates within an eternal hymn to nature, which speaks of scattered beauties and grants the viewer the pleasure of identifying with what is pleasing, as well as the desire to look again.

On his understanding of painting, Aldemar Ibrahimović says: “I do not think at all about whether I will be modern or not. I merely select frames from the environment in which I live. What I paint may be spoken of as a form of realism, even though it is, in fact, ‘a subjective vision of objective objects’, an attempt to achieve in the painting an imagined atmosphere, an impression of the power of stone and rocky terrain. I start from an impression and paint what is not only compelling for the painter but also for all those who have had the opportunity to see the landscapes I paint. I try to transfer that first powerful impression onto the canvas and, at the same time, to solve purely pictorial problems. In my work, the old concept of the ‘window picture’ does not exist; instead, everything is brought into the foreground.

The exhibition of the Rožaje painter Aldemar Ibrahimović at the “Sopoćanska viđenja” Gallery in Novi Pazar is open until 10 March.

Radoslav Rade Mihailović Novi Pazar, 3 March 1989.