By Tirana Times
July 29, 2016 12:10
Austria-based Kosovo painter Gazmend Freitag has created some new graphs with Albanian motifs, featuring among others Albania’s 15th century national hero Skanderbeg, 17th century writer Pjeter Bogdani and the early 20th century Albanian independence.
Ursula Pfeiffer, his Austrian curator, described the graphs as “created with a narrative character in mind and inherently displaying a special magic.”
“Just as in his paintings, Gazmend Freitag concentrates in his graphic work (drawings in pencil, crayon, chalk, ink and other media) on particular themes: nudes, portraits, dancing, landscapes, cities and mythology. Sometimes these are sketches or studies for his oil paintings, but more often they are images in themselves, created with a narrative character in mind and inherently displaying a special magic. This is also reflected in his portraits where Freitag always manages to highlight the aura of the person he is drawing in a sensitive way,” says Pfeiffer.
The homeland motifs take much space in Freitag’s art.
“Besides the natural beauties of my hometown, there are even the motifs from the Albanian mythology such as the figures of Skanderbeg, Aleksander Moisiu and many others. So, wherever I live and work, the longing for my land accompanies me constantly and is part of my life,” he told Tirana Times in an earlier interview.
“My greatest wish is to open an exclusive exhibition in Tirana. In Kosovo as well!” he added.
Gazmend Freitag is a Kosovo artist who is living and making art in Linz, Austria.
Freitag’s works encompass numerous motifs: autobiographical elements, landscapes from the country of his birth, portraits of different people, memories from his childhood, nudes and figure drawings, still life and other subjects. He mainly uses techniques such as drawing with pencils, chalk and ink as well as oil paintings on canvas, among others.
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