Between Two Easts: Picturing a Global Socialism in Albanian Post-War Art, 1959–69

Abstract

This essay examines the efforts to construct an image of global socialist society in post-war Albania, looking closely at the images published in a 1959 travelogue by artist and art critic Andon Kuqali, chronicling his visit to the People's Republic of China. This piece of writing and the accompanying sketches and prints created by the artist reflect the cultural aspects of Albania's efforts to position itself within the socialist world in the period after Stalin's death. In this decade, Albania broke with the Soviet Union and moved towards stronger political and economic alliances with socialist nations in East Asia, including China. Kuqali's travel essay represents a key document in the formation of a global socialist identity in Albania, an effort to find common ground and shared purpose – in both life and modes of artistic production – between peoples who had relatively little knowledge of each other.