Kastrioti Castle

About the author

Born in Korça in 1942, in a family returned from a long emigration to Odessa, from 1946, Lazar Taci continues his life in Tirana. Seeing the boy's tendencies for drawing, his mother pursues his future, first in the drawing course at the Palace of Culture led by the painter Sadik Kaceli and then, in 1954, when after a national competition he wins the right to to continue his studies at the Artistic High School of Tirana, from which he graduated in 1960 in the branch of easel painting. After working as a drawing teacher for 1 year in schools of Tirana, in 1961 he competed and is one of the winners in the competition for continuing studies at the Higher Institute of Arts. One of the professors who influenced his artistic formation the most was the painter Sali Shijaku, who had just returned to Albania from his studies at the Leningrad Academy. During these years, a special trend was felt in the field of book graphics and illustration, which was concretized with a successful collaboration with the Publishing House Naim Frashëri, the only one at that time, as well as with 6 national adult magazines. and for children to follow for many years. In 1966 he graduated with honors from the Higher Institute of Arts and was re-appointed drawing teacher in two schools in Tirana. After 1971 he started working as a professional illustrator at the School Book Publishing House where he continued until he retired in 2004. During all these years, being a member of the League of Writers and Artists, he participated in all national exhibitions, mainly with historical compositional paintings, located in important museums and institutions of the country. With the change of the political system in Albania, he continued the cooperation with the publishers and with his illustrations he was represented 3 times in the Illustration Biennial in Bratislava (1999, 2001, 2003). In 2000 he was honored to be listed on the IBBY Honor List. Also in philatelic competitions he is the winner in 12 competitions with philatelic shows. Since 2003 he is a regular participant of all the annual exhibitions of the artistic group Nëntori and starting from 2010 he is one of the two organizers and regular participants of another artistic group PranverArt. In 2015, one of his paintings was selected online by Art Revolution Taipei to be exhibited in its halls and as a result of the success of the painting, an entire stand was left available for the exhibition of 9 other paintings in the activity that took place after one year, in 2016.