Varna Gallery: 75 Years of Art

Hristo Kavarnaliev built his landscape in a generic way, with clear forms without many details. This picture depicts a view of Varna in the 40s of the last century.

As many of the Bulgarian artists of this generation, his oeuvre includes paintings in different styles. Significant cityscape artists were influenced by Impressionism and Post-impressionism.

Georgi Velchev is one of the earliest significant highly professional painters whose art and life relate to the city of Varna. It shows that Bulgarian art from the 20s, 30s and 40s mirrors the styles that marked European art in the previous decades.

Georgi Velchev travelled the world and accumulated a wealth of artistic lore. His pieces with seascapes range from Classical Realism to Post-impressionism and Pointillism. His art often matches impressionism and symbolism as well.

Yanko Marinov (1907 – 2001) was the founder of Permanent Art Gallery in Varna in 1950 and its first Gallery Director between 1953 and 1959 and a chairman of Varna  group within the Union of Bulgarian artists.

Yanko Marinov belongs to the Bulgarian artist’s generation from the second half of the 20th century. He paints in the style neo impressionism even though in this time modernity dominates the Bulgarian art tradition.

Two significant features of his oeuvre meet in this art work. They showcase features, which are typical for the tendencies of the 80s. On one hand, the photography is integrated into painting.  On the other hand, the artwork builds on dominating shapes and figures.

The 1970s and 80s Bulgarian art is marked by the edge between modern and contemporary art. At first glance, this classical theme looks surprising within this context. This art piece exemplifies the mature period of the painter.

This artwork of Petio Marinov is uncompromisingly modern. The surface is characterized by monochromatic glaze technique which is used to apply various geometric surfaces. Due to the monochromatic gray color palate, they harmonize with the human figure.

The woman silhouette appears realistic and visible, but it also disintegrates into the overall atmosphere. The composition has a clear subject but it appears abstract, philosophical and attached to the Classics at the same time.

The couple Traychev and Zafirkova represent the development of modern and contemporary art in Varna in 1970s and 80s. In this time, Varna turned into a very active and influential center of visual arts in Bulgaria.

Albeit held in the confines of the figurative style, they created a type of art,  which was imbued with much more modern spirit, with an artistic defiance of conservatism norms, with an intellectual and dramatic reflection of a public and cultural environment.

Traychev and Zafirkova joined this creative process. They are among the artists who further freed the visual expression and brought into it strong autonomy, aesthetic innovativeness and provocativeness.

Maria Zafirkovas composition “Reflections at midnight”  appears almost completely abstract and just the silhouette of a hand stands out. The artwork is a large scaled picture that consists of four parts. It is performed entirely in dramatic blue-black tonality.

Dimitar Traychev worked originally in the field of advertesing but then collage and photorealism started to be integrated into his visual art works where he also unfolded his talent.

The here showed art piece is a characteristic example for his oeuvre and visualizes tendencies that marks the Bulgarian art for several decades.

Volodya Valchev, along with Zafirkova, Traychev work for several years in the iconic Varna artistic space Vulkan (a former workshop that was left empty and the rooms was transformed into ateliers).

These artists formed an art colony,  which became a center of artistic life in Bulgaria, and turned Varna into significant center of contemporary art. ”Mirror“ was painted in the Vulcan period of Volodya Valchev and it is representative for his ouevre of the 80s.

Bulgarian painting in the 70s and 80s predominantly used dark, complex and deep register of colours.

Volodya Valchev contributes to this tendencies by creating middle-size canvases in dark harmonies of gray, blue, green, ochre and gray-blue hues, which are complex, monochromatic and a bit on the heavy side, but which reveal a strikingly visual culture.

The nature motifs that he painted have been taken to the verge of the obscure, almost abstract colour compositions of broken patches, dark accent and bright flashes.

"Mirror” belongs to an exceptional series of generally dark or cold brown art pieces in which appear more colourful and intensive centers. The figure are molten and are turned into sheer expressive and sensuous painting imbued with an enigmatic Baconian spirit.

The above shown art piece of Stoimen Stoilov is an example of his early oeuvre. Generally, it appears mystical, by using archetypes, motifs and symbols, mainly from ancient Balkan history.

Later on, general human topics as war, suffering and human rights take precedence. Probably  the more mature works were fundamental for his international recognition. In 1991, he received Austria's Herder Prize for his lifetime achievement.

Emanuil and Snezhina Popgencheva, a futher creative couple in the Bulgarian arts are among the innovators of the 1980s. They differ in their style but at the same time - exemplify some general trends:

Monochromatic schemes and shades of blue are used by both – Snezhina, and Emanuil for figurartive experiments within modern still life and scenes. Both reach additional depth of semantic, philosophical expression by fragmenting the pictures.

Emanuil Popgenchev uses planar composition and forms of Cubism for fragmenting a figurative scene.

Both authors reach an abstract, philosophical aura, but Snezhina appear more emotional and Emanuil - rather cold and rational.

Georgi Lechev is known for his creative performances and achievements in the field of graphic art. He was among the founders of Varna Graphic School. After 1979, Lechev had his own studio in the legendary Vulcan Art Centre.

This art piece exemplifies the transition from neorealism to expressive abstraction in his complete works and in the Bulgarian arts in general.

We continue with a third artistic couple - Aliosha Kafedzhijski and Kina Petrova. The tradition is present in the artwork of Kina Petrova in a barely noticeable way by choosing antique subjects like the oil lamp for her still life.

Apart from this the painting unfolds the modern manner by using similar colour shades, suggesting the perspective technique by using lines and light effects only.

Daria Vasilyanska is considered an unusual but excellent artist in the field of romantic neo-naïve. This is an extremely strong trend in Bulgarian art in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, most of the  artists paint in this style cityscapes and traditional scenes, and in this context the work of Vasilyanska is exceptional. However, she denies these definitions and positions her oeuvre rather into the tradition of neo-expressionism.

Milko Bozhkov enriches the Bulgarian art in various manners. For instance, he bridges in his art the distance between classical and contemporary art.  The art piece appears contemporary due to the panel-like construction, the colour palette and the generalized central figure.

It belongs to a series that depicts various stones and imply abstract philosophical reflections. The message, however, turns into concrete proclamation by quoting the Poet Boris Hristov.

In the artwork of Veselin Nachev we encounter some typical modern aspects of Bulgarian art tradition, namely the experiment with the form, the gloomy atmosphere. In addition, he shows the affinity for collage inspired art by creating a fusion of photorealism and painting.

Contemporary art works from the 21stcentury differ from those of the 80s due to accents that stress the drama of the emotions.