Ohrid - Ettore Ponzi. From the "Lexicon of Foreign painters in Macedonia"
After starting almost by chance, over the last twenty years Vlatko Miloshevski has collected dozens of works of art created in the territories of the historical region of Macedonia in the period 1850-1950. A heritage now also accessible online
Vlatko Miloshevski lives in the Netherlands, where he works as an IT expert, but for 20 years he has been searching and buying or documenting various works of art by foreign painters visiting the geographical territory of Macedonia.
The “Lexicon of foreign painters in Macedonia 1850-1950 ” – also a website – collects all available information about the activities of foreign painters, illustrators, graphic artists, sculptors and art photographers who visited Macedonia and created artwork inspired by the country, culture, tradition, nature or historical events in the period between 1850 and 1950. About 400 pages now present 246 foreign painters with their biographies and 590 photographs of their works.
It all started in 2004, when Vlatko was engaged in his favourite evening hobby – searching for interesting pictures on the Internet. At an online auction, he noticed that 12 gouache drawings on paper read: "Nicholas Petkovic – drawings from Macedonia, 1928".
He proceeded to buy three of them. Then for several years, until 2008, he searched to find out more about this unknown to him painter and his connection with Macedonia. He found the answers in Serbian art blogs: Petkovic was a teacher in Ohrid in 1912-1916, so he painted and drew Ohrid landscapes and Macedonian villagers in folk costumes in everyday activities. Vlatko then expanded his search for other painters from other countries who came to Macedonia between 1850 and 1950.
An art marathon
"In those first four years, the Lexicon project began to evolve from an Excel list into a lexicon of biographies. My private art collection also began to grow. I learned the lesson that this project will be a marathon, not a sprint. Not only for Nikola Petkovic, but also for many other painters, it took me several years to find their connection and then a story related to Macedonia as well as their biography”, says Miloshevski.
He continued to research catalogues, archives of museums all over the world, online auctions and sites of auction houses and bought works of art from painters from dozens of different countries who worked in Macedonia. Sometimes he contacted the artists' descendants to obtain the works.
On a large number of these works of art, the painters wrote "Macedonia" as the place of creation when Macedonia neither existed as a state nor had its territory officially named that way. Yet, Miloshevski says, they knew where they were, and such cultural legacy belongs to all ethnic groups and today's states that include a part of geographical Macedonia.
The collector's website points out that the term Macedonia refers to the geographical region including today's Republic of North Macedonia, the territory of Aegean Macedonia – today part of Greece, the territory of Pirin Macedonia – today in Bulgaria and the regions of Mala Prespa, Golo Brdo, Pustec and Pogradec – today in Albania.
Several Italian painters are mentioned. During the First World War, around 1918, Alfonso Corradi (1889-1872) stayed in Macedonia as a military painter. Three of his works are reproduced on postcards of the time. They show scenes from the village life of the Macedonian people at that time. Another well-known work of his is the painting titled "Spring in Macedonia".
Vico Mantegazza (1856-1934) – Italian writer, journalist, photographer and politician – is present with his photographs of the people of Macedonia in the period from 1903 to 1905. He published them in the book "Macedonia" (1903), where he describes his stay and the political and civil situation before the Ilinden Uprising and carefully explains the Macedonian question. In 1908, Mantegazza came to Macedonia again, as part of the Austro-Hungarian-Turkish railway project to connect Istanbul and Thessaloniki by train.
Ettore Ponzi (1908-1992), a painter and a soldier, lived in the Albanian part of Macedonia as well as in the Ohrid Region. He mostly painted people in traditional clothes, churches, monasteries and mosques in Korča, Ohrid and neighbouring villages.
A common heritage
Miloshevski says that we should all be proud of this bequest. He believes that this art inspired and created in Macedonia is something that brings us together in these difficult times, as all these artists saw Macedonia as a very interesting and unusual country, where different cultures and religions live in one place.
“People in the markets spoke 3-4 languages, in one conversation they turned from Macedonian, to Albanian, to Vlach, to Turkish, and that combination of cultures was unprecedented for them. This motive prevails in all the works collected. Scenes from the markets throughout Macedonia, portraits of Macedonian villagers, people, scenes from wars”, said Miloshevski in Tetovo, one of the cities in North Macedonia where he promotes his Lexicon.
At the same time, according to Vlatko, that period of 100 years is a combination of the development of civilisation in general, art and culture as well as history. That century saw the coming of Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism and modern art. Technology invented the telephone, the radio, cars and planes. From a historical point of view, the revolutionaries began to fight for the independence of the Macedonian state, then came the Balkan Wars, then the First World War, then the Second World War.
Just a beginning
For the Lexicon, Vlatko collaborated with journalist and photographer Zoran Andonov from Tetovo, who helped find the biographies of the artists. At the promotions in Macedonian cities, Vlatko always brings around thirty paintings so that art lovers can get to know them.
At the promotion in Ohrid, the president of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts emphasised that the artistic creation collected in the Lexicon is of inestimable value for the future of now North Macedonia.
"This book talks about the artistic creation seen through the eyes of the foreigners who were in these areas in the period 1850-1950 and testify to Macedonian disobedience, to Macedonian creativity. That is why I insist that two things are needed for the future of North Macedonia, science and art. Science so that we can have better economic growth and development, and art so that we are not forgotten", said Ljupcho Kocarev as reported by the sdk.mk portal.
The Lexicon is written in Macedonian and English. A basic biography is provided for each painter, to identify and list the painters who visited Macedonia as much as possible.
When asked about the future, Vlatko says that he sees the Lexicon as a beginning. He hopes that a more detailed study on this topic will initiate cooperation between state archives and art historians in this part of the Balkans, as fine art is something that can unite.
