site.btaExhibition of Works by German Artist Franz von Stuck to Be Displayed at Kvadrat 500 Gallery

An exhibition titled "Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness" will be on display at Sofia’s Kvadrat 500 Gallery, a branch of the National Gallery, from April 16 to October 13, the organizers said. The event's media partner is BTA, its curator Iaroslava Boubnova, and assistant curator Maria Kodinova.

This will be the first exhibition in Bulgaria presenting the renowned German Symbolist (1863 – 1928) known among the Bulgarian public for his painting Lucifer (1890), which was purchased by Bulgaria’s Prince Ferdinand during a visit to Munich a year after its creation and is now part of the National Gallery collection. The painting is now displayed alongside 12 of Stuck’s artworks from the collection of the Villa Stuck Museum in Munich, which provides an overview of the artist's oeuvre.

The design of Kvadrat 500’s Hall 24, which will house the exhibition, alludes to the aesthetics of Villa Stuck, Franz von Stuck's largest artistic project, which later became a municipal museum, housing a good part of the artist’s works. Architects Kirill Ass and Nadia Korbut have employed a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian style that underlies Stuck’s decorative choices.

This exhibition aims to broaden the Bulgarian public's understanding of one of the most renowned European artists of the decades at the turn of the 20th century. Through his works, it seeks to give a deeper insight into the art of Symbolism, which had a great influence on Bulgarian modernists, the organizers noted. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and architect. His students at Munich's art academy include Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and Bulgarian Konstantin (Kocho) Garnev.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, which offers an in-depth view of the displayed works. The catalogue was published in partnership with the Villa Stuck Museum.