Opening Remarks at the Exhibition

Whoever wishes to paint a landscape well must know its geology, claimed Cézanne. This observation by the painter of sunlit Provence and its landscapes is equally applicable to Aldemar Ibrahimović’s painting. His canvases, inspired by the beauty of his native landscapes, reveal not only knowledge of their “geology, but also a deep, organic connection with what Bachelard would call his “first universe: the world in which he was born and grew up, and which surrounds him. “Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible, wrote Klee.

Aldemar’s brush makes visible miraculous natural phenomena, landscape themes and motifs — as surreal as they are real, as calming as they are exciting, as mysterious as they are fabulous, as constant as they are mutable — in fact, his own artistic experiences, making them ours, or familiar to us. For Aldemar Ibrahimović, the earth is Mother: that which brought us into the world and nourishes us, that to which we belong, from which we emerged, and to which we return. From almost every one of his paintings radiates a primeval love of the earth — whether in a ploughed field, fallow land, a clearing, untouched terrain, a garden, a field before harvest, or meadows fenced with snow-white stakes and rails, above which clouds float, moonlight spills, or the sun draws forth scents and colours. Everything is in full harmony with the artist’s feelings; everything is reduced to pure pictoriality, and everything becomes a metaphor for life and being. Strong colours — bright yellow, intense green, or deep brown — express the artist’s intense experience of changes within nature. Aldemar sees with his eyes closed and acts in keeping with Gide’s message that one must “discover reality beneath appearance.

Ever since his student days, travelling through the Greek landscape each summer, absorbing the healing influence of the Mediterranean sun and spirit, of dream and history — lingering in places where temples, edifices, sculptures, and other works of art preserve the memory of ancient Hellas; contemplating them alone on the seashore, gazing at sunsets and sunrises as the sun rises from the sea foam like Aphrodite — Aldemar kept thinking of, and yearning for, his native land, aware that his strength lay within it, and that permanence and transience are everywhere the same, much like human destinies. Upon his return to his native land, his canvases gain in universality; the aesthetic experience becomes primary, and it is here that the artist is closest both to himself and to us. This was something his friends, admirers of his art, and especially art critics could recognise and sense; indeed, the critics’ predictions that the young man from Rožaje would become a renowned painter were increasingly confirmed. Today, he is one of the most prominent members of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro; he has had eighteen solo exhibitions and taken part in numerous group exhibitions, receiving significant awards, including the Milunović, Stijović, and Lubarda Award in 1998.

Judging by his most recent paintings, Ibrahimović is entering his most mature creative phase. His stay in Paris, the city of light and art, will certainly contribute to the crowning of his creative oeuvre with works that will secure him a distinguished place not only in Montenegrin culture but well beyond it.

Zuvdija Hodžić Podgorica 2005.