site.btaNational Library Marks 125 Years Since Artist Dechko Uzunov's Birth with Exhibition

The National Library celebrates the 125th anniversary of the birth of the artist Dechko Uzunov with an exhibition that will be on display until March 11, the Library said on Friday. The exposition includes albums and reproductions from the collection of the Special Collections Department.

A virtual exhibition on the anniversary of Uzunov's birth can be viewed on the National Library's YouTube channel.

Uzunov (1899-1986) worked in paining, stained glass, design, ceramics, illustration and teaching. He studied art under Karl von Maar at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Munich, and in 1924 under Stephan Ivanov at Sofia's National Academy of Art. In 1922 he became the youngest member of the National Art Society of Bulgaria and later its chairman. He also chaired the Union of Bulgarian Artists for several terms.

During the 1930s Uzunov became known as a master of portrait painting: among his best-known works are "Poet Liliev" (1929), "Theatre Director Masalitinov" (1931) and "Actor Krustyo Sarafov in the Role of Falstaff" (1932; all in the National Art Gallery, Sofia). From 1938 he was a professor of painting at Sofia's National Academy of Art. He represented Bulgaria at the Venice Biennale in 1942, 1948 and 1964. As a stained-glass artist, he executed commissions for the Bulgarian National Bank (1942), the Palace of Justice (1938-43) and the University of Sofia (1980), and he did a ceramic wall piece for the Opera House in Stara Zagora. His frescoes include those for the Housе of Culture in Karlovo and the National Theatre in Sofia, the latter done in 1976. His last large public commission was the fresco "Apotheosis of Bulgarian Culture" (1981) in Hall Nine of Sofia's National Palace of Culture. In his late works, for example "Self-Portrait" (1979; National Art Gallery, Sofia) and "Cain and Abel" (1979; Samokov Art Gallery), he began to use abstract forms. In 1978 he was elected academician at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He was also president of the International Association of the Plastic Arts at UNESCO in Paris.

His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.