Today is the 110 birth anniversary of the Albanian iconographer, painter and teacher Androniqi Zengo Antoniu.

Androniqi Zengo Antoniu was born on May 26th, 1913 in the village of Dardha. She is known as the first woman painter in the history of Albanian figurative art.

She would start her vocation under the footsteps of his father, Vangjel Zengo, and her sister, restoring the mural paintings of Saint Mary, Saint Thanas in Korça, Saint Kolli in Hoçisht, etc.

She completed her higher studies at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, where she stood out for excellent results and then continued her studies at the “Ecole Des Belles Artes” in Paris.

Returning to homeland, Androniq starts work in Korça as a teacher at the female school.

In 1937, in the framework of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Independence of Albania, Zengo opened her first exhibition with paintings belonging to her time as a teacher. While a year later, she would open a second exhibition and the appreciation for her figure would exceed local dimensions, transforming Zengo as a model of inspiration for women at that time.

Since her first steps, she has been describes as an “impressionist”, with over 500 works in oil, some of which are in the Art Gallery in Tirana. As an iconographer, she worked on the decoration of eight churches in Korça, Tirana and other places in Albania.

Later, her name would be mentioned in the most successful galleries or fairs of the time. In 1940, Zengo would be honored in Bari, Italy for the work “The Castle of Petrela”. Unique voices of Albanian painting, such as Vangjush Mio and Zef Kolombi, were part of the exhibition.

The artist would be appreciated during the communist period at home and abroad for her creative work. Her paintings are dominated by portraits, landscape, her love for costumes and her birthplace Dardha.

/k.s/