The painter Sadik Kaceli is part of the group of important Albanian painters of the 20th century. He is regarded as one of the main figures of Albanian art who consolidated realism in Albanian painting of the first half of the 20th century, bringing to Albanian art the main elements of French art, where he studied. The painter Sadik Kaceli was born in Tirana in a middle class family. In 1931, Sadik Kaceli attends a drawing course (Tirana), which after a year is approved by the Albanian state as a Drawing School.
He studied at this school (1932 – 1936), tutored by pedagogues Mario Ridola, Andrea Kushi and Abdurrahim Buza. Painter Sadik Kaceli’s dream was to attend painting studies in Paris, France. He constantly went to the “Carrevon” Library in Tirana, founded by an English citizen living in Tirana, where he got acquainted with the works of French painters, Matisse, Monet, Manes, etc. Helped by his brothers, the painter Kaceli went to Paris in September 1936 and studied at the “Ecole National Supperieurs des Beaux-Arts”.

His main teacher during the years of the academy was Fernand Sabatto, (1874 -1940) painting personality and fellow student with Matisse in the studio of the painter Gustav Moro. Drawing and painting in the “Academy” were the main subjects and the study of the human body was the focus. During his studies in Paris, Kaceli regularly attended the lectures in the fresco studio of prof. Dycos De L’Halle.

In 1941, he returned to his homeland and started working as a teacher in the state high school, Tirana, where he worked until 1946. During the years 1946-1970, Kaceli was a teacher at the Artistic High School “Jordan Misja” in Tirana, teaching various subjects ( drawing, painting, art history, perspective, decoration) for many generations of students.

The painter Sadik Kaceli is the author of the Albanian banknote printed in the first years of liberation, the creative author of the coat of arms of the Republic of Albania (1946) and the design of the Albanian National flag. The artistic creativity of the painter Sadik Kaceli after 1944 is quite extensive. With the end of the second world war (1945) Kaceli created different paintings such as compositions, landscapes and less portraits. In the former Kinostudio “Shqiperia e Re” Kaceli created one of the frescoes in the upper part of the entrance hall entitled “Harvest” (1952). During the years 1945-1960 from the creativity of the artist we can remember: “War of Tirana” (1947), “Naim Frashëri” (1952); “The Passage of the First Division to the North” (1951); “Bringing the farmer out of the hut”; “Harvest” (1956); “Miners of the night shift” (1956), the graphics “Kruja” (1957) and “Petrela Castle” (1956), etc.

During 1960-1983, the painter Kaceli devoted himself more and more to the landscape and the realization of graphic cycles with landscapes from the city and well-known monuments of Albanian culture. From this period are the paintings: “Qeparo” (1961), ” Karl Marks Hydropower” (1961), “Piqerasi” (1969), “Northern Alps” (1971), “Lukova” (1973), etc. .
The painter Sadik Kaceli was a deeply realistic painter. His works in painting are always permeated by the humanist spirit, lyricism carrying notes of romanticism. These elements are reflected in his compositional paintings of Socialist Realism. In the realization of these paintings, Kaceli is one of the few painters who deal with the themes of work and the national-liberation war in an original perspective and less influenced by the canons and strict rules of the creative method of Socialist Realism. For this reason, Sadik Kaceli gradually moved away and after his retirement in 1973, he worked in his studio on family motifs and themes, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Sadik Kaceli is among the important realistic painters of the 20th century in the Albanian visual arts.
From the creativity of the painter Sadik Kaceli, forty-five works are located in the National Art Gallery, Tirana, a rich collection is kept in the studio of the Kaceli family, Tirana. The artist’s works are also in the collections of several collectors in France, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Turkey, China, USA. Some of the works from the fund of national Gallery, Tirana have been part of the collection of exhibitions that the Albanian state opened at the Alexandria Biennale, Egypt (1958, 1952, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1987); in Bucharest, Romania (1958, 1970) ; in Sofia, Bulgaria (1958); in Moscow and Yerevan, former USSR (1958); in Budapest, Hungary (1959); in Vienna and Graz, Austria (1970, 1973); in Beijing and Shanghai, China (1967, 1968); in Pristina, Kosovo (1972); in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey (1980) and Paris, France (1988).
During the years 1942-1998, Sadik Kaceli wrote fifteen different articles on visual arts and was awarded several artistic prizes for his creativity. In 2007, the monograph “Kaceli 1914 – 2000” by researcher Eli Xoxa was published. For the high artistic level in his creativity, artist Sadik Kaceli was awarded the title of “Merited Painter” (1986), “People’s Painter” (1994) and “Honorary Citizen” of the city of Tirana (1998).

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