The craft of producing works of art in metal in the Ohrid region is over 2,600 years old.

As early as the 6th century BC, the people of the Trebenista cultural area produced, with great inventiveness, brilliant artifacts, which still thrill art lovers. With his metal creations, Anastas Dudan from Ohrid revives these old works, aiming to achieve the artistic values of the old masters.

He may not be Ohrid's only artist who uses metal to express himself, but he is the only one who has achieved excellent results "restoring" the exceptional values of the Macedonian medieval icon- and fresco-painting, rendering the likeness of those works through the beating and hammering of metal surfaces. Dudan has achieved enviable results applying also his knowledge of the technology used in producing the ornamental decorations adorning the medieval icons of the famous Ohrid collection. He has also managed to recreate the illuminating artistic values of Old Macedonian manuscripts with creative devotion, which presents the new product through its creative soul.

With the same enthusiasm, which incorporates not only inspiration, but also a particularly refined feel for moulding, plasticity, meticulous graphic qualities, and an incredible sense of compositional arrangement of the product's basic essence, Dudan has produced metal valuables for various secular and sacral purposes. Decorative metal covers for the Gospel and other paraphernalia for old manuscripts are his favourite items for creative performance.

Unobtrusively, humbly, and with great perseverance and tenacity, this artist of Ohrid is about to enter the 3rd millennium, presenting to the future -- together with his inspiration and creativity -- the knowledge, the skills, and the traditional obsessions of the ancient masters not only from Ohrid's artistic circle, but also of all other authors of similar works in Macedonia.

Pasko Kuzman