Socialist Realism Art & History Tours

One aspect of Albanian culture that interests us is Socialist Realism art – of which Albania has in abundance. The communist regime took the visual arts very, very seriously and the country is peppered with their works, from mosaics to monuments (many of which are now sadly vandalized or have simply been neglected.)

You can visit the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana to see its collection of Socialist Realism art, but without any context or in-depth descriptions, the works can sometimes be a little perplexing. This is why we try to arrange for our clients a visit to the gallery with one of Albania’s finest Socialist Realism artists, Robert Permeti. Those who have taken the tour with him before have been moved by his stories and have learned a lot about the time period.

Check out the Socialist Realism tour we offer!

Folk painting by Robert Permeti

An Albanian Trip client views a work at Robert Permeti’s studio

Before the tour we met Robert at his studio, where he showed us some of the works that aren’t in the gallery, giving us the back-stories to the paintings, and a fascinating insight into the politics that governed Albanian art under Communism.

Artist Robert Permeti

Robert Permeti talks to an Albanian Trip client about life as an artist under Communism

We then visited the gallery itself, where Robert was able to bring to life the works, and tell us something of the artists who created them.

If you’d like to tour the gallery with an Albanian Socialist Realism artist (not necessarily Robert Permeti; we are friends with many other fine artists of the same epoque) then please do get in touch. We’d love to put together something special for you.

Realizmi_Socialist

Starting from February 2016, this tour has been running hundreds of times and everyone on it, simply loved it! Do get in touch with us for confirming!

3 Comments on “Socialist Realism Art & History Tours”

  1. Unsere Rundreise mit Herr Mihali- wir nannten ihn “Georg” abgewandelt von seinem albanischen Vornamen in deutsch, war einfach phantastisch gut. Wir möchten Ihnen und auch ihm herzlich danken, dass wir 5 so viel Schönes und Interessantes sehen und erleben konnten. Da auch bei Planabänderungen durch uns oder durch den Reiseleiter, der sehr gut erfasste, was zu uns passt, haben wir mehr gesehen und erlebt, was wir kaum erwartet hätten.
    Tolle Übernachtungen, tolles Essen und ein Super- Reiseleiter!

    Rundreise war Topp! Werden wir auf jeden Fall weiter empfehlen!!!!

  2. I have made four trips to Albania during the last three years in order to carry out research for my Doctoral thesis in cultural geography. Albanian Trip have been hugely helpful during my research trips; locating and providing transport to potential case study sites, arranging interviews and translating where necessary. With their knowledge of Albanian history and culture, their diverse range of contacts and their enthusiasm they are quite simply the best in the business. I cannot recommend them highly enough to those contemplating academic tourism/field research in Albania.

  3. We booked a tour at Albaniantrip, we asked for a Sovjet architecture tour through Tirana. We had a wonderfull good tour with Elton our guide. He took us to unexpected exciting places which you would never find on your one. He is a very good guide and has great stories about Tirana, but also a fun person: smart, modest and creative. I talked about a project I wanted to work on (I am an artist) and spoke about a person I wanted to film. He suggested he could arrange that. And he did! Elton brought me in contact with the person in Durres, I even could borrow a stative from him. His translating work was very good! Heryby I highly recommand Albaniantrip!

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