Light of the country

Jordan Manasievski belongs to the Ohrid circle painters. The core of the domestic painters is created by painters who do not originate but live and work in Ohrid.
The conditions did not allow the painting to develop continuously, but nevertheless, notable authors and works are encountered.
We are interested in authentic voices, and one of them is revealed in the work of Jordan Manasievski. He deals mainly with Ohrid motifs, lake landscapes, urban architecture, but also finds his motives in other parts of Macedonia.
He, like the impressionists, comes out in the landscape, at different times of the day. The painter in the work is different, but always approaches with open heart and sincerity. He seizes with sincere gaiety his favorite motives building the image with safe moves. The earlier works painted with a brush but also with a painter’s knife have marks of certain constructiveness in the treatment of the form.
The latest cycle of images is characterized by more freely playing strokes and a fluid impediment. He knows to vary the same motifs many times and from each move to feel the refreshment of the motive.
The pictures of Jordan Manasievski are characterized by a bright and vibrant color dominated by white, green and blue, yellow and earth tones.
His landscape impressions have freshness of spontaneous approach, but also the reliability of solid technical knowledge.
Visual sensations are immediate and processing of the motif is based on coloring values. The color is actually the essential structure and expresses the component of the picture, and with the layout of its valleys the prevailing effects of light, mood and spatial suggestion are obtained.
The author shows some affection, but he retreats or more precisely melts into the general uniform rhythm of the moves that summarize the form. In doing so, the sure manner of performance is noticeable.
In the paintings of Jordan Manasievski the prevailing colors of the fauvists and the energetic move of the expressionists prevail, but in a softer lyrical variant. In them, as distinctness, we recognize the hallmarks of a kind of “colorful regionalism”, light and colors of the climate.
It should be underlined, the convincing connection of spontaneity and knowledge, of impression and inner experience.
Vladimir Velickovski (Expert in art critics and professor for history of art)
August, 1996