Jubelee exhibition – 120 years since birth of Tomo Vladimirski

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The exhibition will be opened in the National Gallery, in the object Daut Pasha Hamam, on September 5th 2024 (thursday), 8 pm.

The earliest traces of Macedonian modernism, whose foundations were laid by several members of the first ground-breaking generation of educated Macedonian artists, was towards the late 1920s and early 1930s, mainly through activities and exhibitions that began to convey the “new” modern spirit of developed European societies and generally implemented through the active cooperation with the neighbouring country to the north.

That generation of artists led by Nikola Martinovski, Lazar Licenovski, Dimitar Pandilov-Avramovski, Dimo Todorovski, Vangel Kodzoman and others was later supplemented by Tomo Vladimirski. His gentle and unassuming character, moderate and dedicated artistic passion, disciplined and humbled has contributed to Vladimirski’s unique and authentic mark on Macedonian modernism. His esteemed artistic sensibility has been noted and highly revered by local and international critics.

“Continuous dialogue between the physical environment and human perception” is a statement that adequately describes Vladimirski’s approach to rendering the landscape. Vladimirski sees the landscape not only a sensation, experience, a moment frozen in time; instead, for him it is life, energy, transformation and constant change. (Clare A. Lees, Gillian R. Overing, “Anglo-Saxon horizons: places of the mind in the Northumbrian landscape”, in A place to believe in: locating medieval landscapes, Clare A. Lees, Gillian R. Overing eds., The Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2006, p. 1.)

The beauty of nature lies in its diverse and varying forms. This is fairly obvious to those who have the ability to perceive it and appreciate the form as form. They actively search for, explore, observe and interpret these forms, which ultimately leads to admiration and pure joy. Thus, the perception and admiration of the magnificence of nature demands interpretation, dedication and awareness, meticulous observation and development of the perceptive perspective. This comprehensive stance also pertains to the observation of natural structures and the creation of artistic representations, since the interpreted form and the formed image must be aligned in a unique configuration, typical to contemplation . Consequently, Vladimirski is an exceptional observer and analyser of nature; an artist who could add a formal aesthetic value and expression of transformation and drama to the landscape to what his gaze had already seen and registered, and what was produced on the surface of his canvasses. The point of separation or detachment from nature (despite existing in nature itself) in order to be able to see its entirety or the suitability of the image is in fact the most crucial point which enhances Vladimirski’s masterful craft and skill.

Vladimirski is a poet of the Macedonian landscape, a painter who succeeded in capturing the beauty of Macedonian landscapes on the canvas. At the same time, they are a testimony to the changing relationship between people and nature in the contemporary constellation of the development of our planet dominated by man – a time referred to as Anthropocene. Vladimirski through his opus has left everlasting values which have become a part of the national cultural treasure and heritage, an important part of the development of Macedonian modernism in visual art.

The curator of the project is Dr. Ana Frangovska, curator consultant

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