Abdurrahim Buza | Figurative painter

Abdurrahim Buza (1905-1986) was born in Skopje of a family from Gjakova in Kosovo. With the help of Bajram Curri, he was able to get a basic education in Shkodra and Tirana and then attend the Normal School (Shkolla Normale) in Elbasan (1923-1928). As a student there, he took an active part in the so-called Democratic Revolution of June 1924. He was subsequently able to study in Italy on an Albanian government scholarship. Together with sculptor Odhise Paskali, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin for a year, and then continued his training as a painter in Florence, 1933.

On his return to Albania, he taught art at a school in Tirana and from 1947 at the Jordan Misja Academy, where he remained until his retirement in 1966. Buza's works were first exhibited at the national level in April 1945. They are characterized by bright colours and a certain peasant naivety. He dealt with a wide range of themes in his painting, from portraits to landscapes in Pogradec and Tirana, as well as historical, legendary and nationalist subjects. The spirit of his native Kosovo is reflected in many of the ca. 500 oil paintings and 10,000 drawings of his, which have been preserved.