Abdurrahim Buza

Abdurrahim Buza (22 December 1905 – 7 November 1986) was an Albanian painter.

Education
Buza was born on December 22, 1905, in Skopje, Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia) in a family from Gjakova. He lost both of his parents at the age of nine. In 1924 the young man managed to move to Albania with the intention of pursuing his academic dream. He pursued basic education in Shkodra and then secondary studies at the Qemal Stafa High School in Tirana with the help of Bajram Curri. As a student there, he took an active part in the June Revolution of June 1924. Buza was later granted a government scholarship for further studies in Fine Arts in Italy. His lead teachers of Turin and Galileo Chini at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze from 1928 to 1932 were among the most influential fine artists of the time in Italy. In 1933, he successfully completed his studies with a degree in Monumental and Decorative Painting.

Career
After his studies, Buza went back to Albania and became a professor of drawing at the Harry Fultz Institute. In 1933 Buza, along with his contemporaries, painter Andrea Kushi, sculptor Odhise Paskali, and painter Mario Ridola, founded the Drawing Artistic School, the first Fine Arts school to open in Tirana, Albania. In 1935, he painted the first Albanian Nude at a time when, in Albanian society, a nude was considered to be immoral and unacceptable. Buza's national level exhibit was held in April 1945. Mr. Buza was the illustrator of one of the most important documents in the history of the Albanian education, the first Albanian language primer, published in 1945. Buza taught at the Jordan Misja Artistic Lyceum in Tirana from 1947 until he retired in 1966.

Artistic style
His artistic style was characterized by bright colors and a certain peasant naivety. There was a wide range of themes in his painting which consisted of both portraits to landscapes in Pogradec and Tirana, The subjects of his paintings were historical, legendary and nationalist. During the 1930s, his drawings depicted the unemployed, the poor, refugees and orphans and portrayed the tense spirit of the War of National Liberation. After the war, themes of his painting focused on the right of the Albanian people to self-determination. During this time, his celebrated the dramatic reconstruction of Albania in the aftermath of World War II.

He brought a modern reality in the Albanian art, using impressionist and expressionist elements in interconnection with his naive and symbolic style.

Accomplishments
During his life, Buza created over 500 oil paintings and thousands of drawings and graphics. His works are preserved in the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana. He was honored by the Albanian Parliament with the award "Painter of Merit" in 1960 and the "Painter of the People" award in 1978.

Notable works

 * Dasma kosovare
 * Pogradeci
 * Lagjja ime Nusja kosovare (1950)
 * Një pjate rrush (1957)
 * Autoportret (1960)
 * Lojërat popullore
 * Azem Galica dhe luftëtarët
 * Refugjatët