Chatin Sarachi (1902 - 1974)

Sarachi as a Painter



Sarachi and Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka: "Chatin Sarachi" - London, February 1959
(click for full size)

Oskar Kokoschka: Chatin Sarachi

Kokoschka became a close friend and admirer of Sarachi as well as a constant influence on his work. They shared a Kensington studio in Stratford Road

Chatin Sarachi first went to England on a diplomatic mission in 1933. In fact, the occupation of Albania from the Italian army coincides with Chatin's position as First Secretary of the Albanian Embassy in London, where he became a well-known painter. Within a few years he had decided to remain in London and gave up his diplomatic career to concentrate on painting.

In 1939 he met the great expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka became a close friend and admirer of Sarachi as well as a constant influence on his work. They shared a Kensington studio in Stratford Road, not far from the Pride Gallery, and worked together leaving as a witness of their friendship, many drawings and paintings of each other. In the press of that period, his name is mentioned among the best rappresentants of English Impressionism, including Oscar Kokoschka. The landscapes, the still lifes, and the flower paintings of Sarachi, exude a vibrant quality with a strictly personal use of colour and tone, achieved through his mastery of watercolors and pastels. In addition, his delicate line drawings indicate that Sarachi was also greatly influenced by Oriental art.

Sarachi's first personal exhibition was held in the aftermath of the Second World War (1945) at the Redfern Gallery, in London. In the folder advertising this exhibition there was written the phrase: "Miracles happen still in the slaughterhouse full of agony, crime and simony which is our World. This is the message as contained in the works of Chatin Sarachi".1

On the Catalogue of the exhibition, among other things, Kokoschka states:

"A contemporary painter with whom the larger public has not yet become acquainted does well to make his own decision of what he thinks the message, contained in his work, will be to those who are to greet him as the morning star.

In the oils and drawings exhibited by Chatin Sarachi here is the work of a former diplomat whom one mighty moment has blessed. Who, at a sudden, was reminded of the time when, as a child, he trod the rude shore and the bare ground of his native Albania." 2

This first exhibition was followed by other two, in the mid fifties. A fourth, commemorating one, with fifty of his best paintings was opened in 1975. It included drawings, oil and water paintings, of landscapes, still lives, and several portraits. In the opening of this exhibition J.P. Hodin concludes with saying that Chatin Sarachi "..was a very good friend, an elaborate artist and one of the most colourful personalities ever known. He liked the high life but, at the same time, was so introspective. He had great artistic ambitions but little interest in criticism". Over the years, Sarachi participated in several group shows and had regular exhibitions in London (Gallerie de Seine - 8 April / 9 May 1958, Redfern Gallery - 1964 etc.), Paris and Dublin.3

The last exhibition of his work was held at the Pride Gallery in London in 1988. The work of Chatin is considered to be closely connected to Expressionism although his knowledge and appreciation included influences of Japanese and Chinese painters. This influence can be noticed quite clearly in some of his masterpieces, as are the flower paintings.



Text of the catalogue of the exhibition held at the Redfern Gallery in 1945



The Leaflet

Front of the Leaflet of the exhibition held at the Pride Gallery in 1988

Oskar Kokoschka:

A contemporary painter with whom the larger public has not yet become acquainted does well to make his own decision of what he thinks the message, contained in his work, will be to those who are to greet him as the morning star.

He may anticipate the public as the ideal community joining in the praise for our Earth, which brings forth life under the light. Of course, this community does not really exist any longer, since Man, as a spiritual being, has lost its wits, become dumb and numbed under the onslaught of our present mechanical civilization, rendering the Earth a lair of bestiality.

The practical reconciliation of the mystic love and the purely imaginary idea of a spiritual community is left to every genuine artist himself to suggest.

Whereas the other way for a painter, sculptor, musician or actor to deal with his Public would be to drop the subject of art or regard it, at best, as an afterthought. In following the latter method the painter will be able to rely, for instance, on his ears and not on his eyes: "The Sun's Eyes" of Goethe. He will do better in selecting his motives and manner so that it may please the stone-blind patron who prefers to know from hearsay or reading what the art-expert writes about beauty, loveliness of Art, blue and pink periods in a particular craftsman's production and so on.

All the numerous exhibitions of commercialized Art (there are practically no other ones at present for the reason that mechanical civilization does not produce cultural commodities) are dealing with the client and not with the one who seeks mystic union with the spiritual world. The client is assumed to be a man of property who finds neither time nor joy in spiritual adventures. Risks in investments have to be cut down to square with normal vision. Nevertheless, Art is, whether discovered or ignored, the only record in history of Man's survival. Although our civilization knows no National Prayer Days, nor V Days to remind man of the deliverance from barbarism, it is Art that humanists man.

In the oils and drawings exhibited by Chatin Sarachi here is the work of a former diplomat whom one mighty moment has blessed. Who, at a sudden, was reminded of the time when, as a child, he trod the rude shore and the bare ground of his native Albania.

Shells came out of the nakedness of vision, and did no longer scare the ear with the sound of shells produced from the jet-propelled aircraft outracing speed. Fishes, birds, figs, grapes, lemons, become again as innocent as the Fruits of the Earth. For the scepticism, but purified in the long vigil when paranoiacs were roaming through the heavens; they ceased to be mere signs of the frigidity of the economic order of commercialisation which prefers to burn the Fruits of the Earth rather than to meet human needs. The mystic love of Art has made a diplomat abdicate the art of how to disunite society. It had converted him to the ideal of brotherhood.

Miracles happen still in the slaughterhouse full of agony, crime and simony which is our World. This is the message as contained in the works of Chatin Sarachi.


Oskar Kokoschka - 1945


  1. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Redfern Gallery in 1945 Back
  2. Kokoschka, Oscar. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Redfern Gallery in 1945 Back
  3. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Pride Gallery in 1988 Back