GALLERY MC | NEW YORK

"Graphic Prints from the 18th and the 19th Centuries from the Collection of the Museum Prilep"

May24th, 2006
from 6-10 pm

"Graphic Prints from the 18th and the 19th Centuries from the Collection of the Museum Prilep" will open at the Gallery MC, New York.
The history and significance of the works will be introduced by the Director of the Institute and the Museum of Prilep, Mr. Rubincho Belcheski.
The exhibition will display 33 graphic prints from the 18th and the 19th centuries of the collection of about 200 in possession of the Institute and the Museum of Prilep.
Slavica Aleksoska, a higher curator, is commissar of the exhibition and author of its catalogue.
Approximately 200 graphic prints from the 18th and 19th centuries were discovered in the lofts of the churches St. Dimitrius (Dimitrija) and St. Announcement (Blagoveshtenie) in the course of reconstruction of their roofs. The greater part of them were creased paper fragments damaged by moisture, insects and dust, requiring speedy conservation. Research work was begun in 2003, at the same time while some graphics were submitted to the process of conservation in the Laboratory for conservation and restoration of library material at the National and University Library St. Klement of Ohrid in Skopje.
The graphics originate mainly from the Holymountain Monasteries: Zoghraph, Hilandar, Vatoped and Ilarion, presenting miraculous figures of saints, religious compositions and of the monasterial complexes themselves. Gathered in one place, by authors and purchasers originating from nearly all regions of the Balkans, they speak of the development of the art of graphic printing in the 18th and the 19th centuries. At the same time they represent an impressive art chronicle of The Holy Mountain itself which has left lasting testimony to its time, its people, their culture and the spiritual life of the given times. Purchasers were mainly rich merchants of the Balkans who went trading to wealthier western countries. Among them there were often purchasers from Macedonia.
The founder of Balkan graphic prints is the Macedonian iconographer Christophor Zhefarovich (born in Dojran at the beginning of the 18th century; died in Moscow in 1753) who was born in the family of a priest from Dojran. He was an experienced icon-painter who learned copper etching in Vienna.