Anastas Dudan
Born 1958 in Ohrid, Macedonia
Education: mechanical engineer
Has worked for ten years in the area of non ferrous metal technology
Has worked for fourteen years in copper
He is a member of the Association of the Applied Arts Artist of Macedonia.
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Contact
Anastas Dudan
st. Jane Sandanski 14
6000 Ohrid, Makedonija
tel. ++ 389 96 264-804
e-mail: dudan1@mt.net.mk |
Has received two awards:
1996, for a souvenir of the town of Ohrid, in the silver plated copper technique
1998, Cultural Information Centre, Skopje, for his work in copperGroup
exhibition:
1998, Cultural Information Centre, Skopje
2002, Bukurest - Romania
Solo exhibitions:
1998, Ohrid, Church of St Nicholas of the Hospital
1998, Skopje, Cultural Information Centre
1999, Ohrid, Church of St Nicholas of the Hospital
1999, Skopje, Cultural Information Centre
August 2000, Ohrid,
2001, Strumica
2002, Beograd, Zrenjanin, Leskovac
The "Metal Obsession" of
Anastas Dudan
The craft of producing works of art on metal is more than 2,600 years old in the Ohrid
region.
As early as the sixth century BC, the people of the Trebenista cultural area produced,
with great inventiveness, brilliant artifacts that still excite art lovers. With his works
in metal, Anastas Dudan from Ohrid revives the historical art object as reminiscence,
aiming to achieve the artistic values of the old masters.
He is not the sole artist in Ohrid who expresses himself in metal, but he is the only one
who has achieved excellent results `reviving' the exceptional values of the Macedonian
mediaeval icon and fresco painting environment, capturing the essence of those works
through the beating and hammering of metal surfaces. Dudan has achieved enviable results
using his technological knowledge and expertise in decorations adorning the mediaeval
icons of the famous Ohrid Collection. He has also managed to recreate the illuminating
artistic value of old Macedonian manuscripts with a rare creative devotion originating in
the depths of his soul.
With the same enthusiasm that presupposes not only a creative impetus but also a
particularly refined feeling for molding, plasticity, meticulous graphic qualities and an
incredible sense of compositional arrangement of the essence of the work, Dudan has
produced metal jewelry for different secular and sacral purposes. Decorative metal covers
designed for the Gospel and other old manuscripts are among his favorites where he can
express himself most creatively. Unintrusively, humbly and with great perseverance and
tenacity, this Ohrid artist now enters the third millennium, carrying, together with his
inspiration and creativity, the knowledge and skill, the traditional subjects and
obsessions of the ancient masters not only from the Ohrid artistic circle but also of all
other authors of similar works in Macedonia.
Pasko Kuzman |
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Anastas Dudan is the only
representative of fine art in the Republic of Macedonia who has been involved for several
years in metal processing based on the mediaeval cultural and artistic treasury of Ohrid.
In the new wave of interpretation of fresco painting, icon painting and the art, of
building done by the old Macedonian artists linked with the restoration of the old
Christian monuments, only the artistic processing of metal was not represented. Today, in
the personality of the mechanical engineer Anastas Dudan an activity has been renewed the
continuity of which in the religious sense, we believed has been forgotten by new icon and
fresco painters and woodcarvers with whom the Ohrid Region has re-emerged as a guardian of
our heritage from the St. Clement spiritual center in the twentieth century too.
What is surprising is the fact that the interest of Anastas Dudan for the medieval icons
plated in silver, for the metal objects for liturgical use, for the cover protection of
parchment paper has not been developed in schools of arts but it is an expression of his
highly profound feeling and interest for the Ohrid treasury of metals. In spite of all
this, Anastas Dudan has excellent knowledge of the metal technique and uses this knowledge
and skills on medieval models and topics. One can find these models in their original form
only in Ohrid, his birthplace. Evidently, he must have gone through a stage of
contemplation and daily practice in order to discover all the fine points of the old
artists-creators whom he did not know personally and to benefit directly from their
experience. Several centuries elapsed from the time when the Ohrid fringes appeared on the
well known icons. It is Anastas Dudan and his work that made possible the renaissance, the
revival of these metal fringes. We all know that before the fifteenth century there were
local, town fringe shops that made objects for the religious service, for the protection
of cover pages for the parchments, that they fringed coins for the state dignitaries and
that they decorated icons. Anastas Dudan discovered their forgotten way of workmanship and
achieved high artistic skill in their reproduction. He got control of the iconography of
the festivity compositions from the Old and New Testament and has a wide repertoire and
choice of saint's figures in metal technique according to the memory of the Byzantine art.
The figures of the Slav and Macedonian educators St. Clement and St. Naum and their
teachers St. Cyril and Methodius play an important part of his repertoire. Today, Anastas
Dudan, with this type of cultural creation, presents himself before the Macedonian public
and before all those who fully respect our cultural heritage. Therefore, we recommend his
work and his exhibits with a desire that they find their place in our contemporary
environment that has traditional marks.
I belive that in the years to come the extensive knowledge gained about the metal and the
study of the old works will make possible for Anastas Dudan to create his own original
compositions and use his technological inventiveness in the applied art, because he has
the patience and curiosity for discovering new ways in this field of applied art
production.
I also believe that our admirers of art and cultural heritage will be surprised and
thrilled from the pieces of art created by Anastas Dudan from Ohrid. He is the first
messenger of the renewal of this topic that remained unknown among the artists of
ornaments. A calm person, unpretentious admirer of old Macedonian skills, Anastas Dudan
reveals the art and technology of the old Ohrid Archbishopry fringe shops starting from
the tenth until the fifteenth century. It is because of this that we all send his
greetings and best wishes for new encounter with his works hoping that they will be
exhibited in Ohrid, in Skopje but also outside the Republic of Macedonia, on their way
towards the dissemination of the cultural heritage of the old Macedonian culture and its
modern interpretation.
Prof. Dr. Cvetan Grozdanov |
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