site.btaWorks by Dechko Uzunov Go on Display in Sofia

An exhibition “Dechko Uzunov. Travel Notes", dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the artist's birth, will open on June 24 at the Dechko Uzunov Art Gallery in Sofia, organizers from the Sofia City Art Gallery said.

Created as a travelling exhibition, it has already been presented in Bulgarian cultural institutes in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Rome.

"As a natural conclusion to this tour, the exhibition will also be shown in the summer months at the Dechko Uzunov Gallery. The public will be able to see a lesser-known side of Dechko Uzunov's work - sketches, drawings and watercolours that trace his travels from his early years to the end of his life," say the organizers.

In a text to the exhibition Adelina Fileva notes: "Hastily jotted down with pencil, pen or felt-tip pen on individual sheets, notebooks and sketchbooks, many of these drawings grow into larger compositions - watercolours or oil paintings. Certain places and cultures strongly impressed the artist, becoming the basis for a rich and varied narrative of nature, architecture, people and events. In addition to Europe, Asia and North America, Uzunov was constantly travelling in Bulgaria. He was attracted by the Balkan towns, the majestic mountains - Rila, Pirin and Rhodopes with their characteristic architecture and nature, the rivers, lakes, as well as the Black Sea with its historic port towns - Nessebar, Balchik, Sozopol, Kaliakra. People rarely appear in these landscapes, and when they are present, they are more like silhouettes - secondary to the overall composition."

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.

One of Bulgaria's greatest masters of painting, Uzunov was born in 1899 and died in 1986. During his career, had served as president of the International Association of the Plastic Arts at UNESCO in Paris, and represented Bulgaria at the Venice Biennale in 1942, 1948, and 1964. Uzunov had solo exhibitions in Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Moscow, Paris, Basel, Munich, Kuwait City, and Beijing.