site.btaPostage Stamp Commemorates 125 Years Since Birth of Artist Dechko Uzunov

A postage stamp commemorating Bulgarian artist Dechko Uzunov's 125th anniversary was validated in the Sofia City Art Gallery on Thursday.

"The name of Dechko Uzunov is closely linked to Bulgarian stamp publishing. Dechko Uzunov has painted stamps for Bulgarian Post", said Bulgarian Post CEO Tzvetilia Stoilkova. Back in Uzunov's lifetime, in 1979, his 80th birthday was marked with three stamps featuring three of his works. A new series of stamps was issued amid his death, she added. Both series were printed in Leipzig, Stoilkova added.

The new postage stamp will be in a mintage of 5000 pieces, with a face value of BGN 1,35 and a special postmark. The artist of the issue is Theodor Liho.

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Culture Minister Amelia Gesheva and Sofia City Art Gallery Director Adelina Fileva. 

Uzunov was born in 1899. In the 1930s, he 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). He started teaching painting at Sofia's National Academy of Art in 1938. 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). He did a ceramic wall piece for the Opera House in Stara Zagora. He has done frescoes for the House of Culture in Karlovo and the National Theatre in Sofia. His last large public commission was a fresco entitled Apotheosis of Bulgarian Culture (1981) in Hall Nine of Sofia's National Palace of Culture. In his late works, including Self-Portrait (1979) and Cain and Abel (1979), he began to use abstract forms. In 1978, he was elected a member of 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.

He had solo exhibitions in Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Moscow, Paris, Basel, Munich, Kuwait City, Beijing.

Uzunov died in Sofia in 1986.