site.btaArtist Georgi Lechev Wants to Bring People Back to Beauty

Shortly before the opening of his exhibition, artist Georgi Lechev told BTA's Valentina Dobrincheva: "I want to bring people back to beauty, to make them feel it again. They should not move in a pattern through nature, as they do in the streets and shops. When their sense of beauty is re-awakened, people will become much better, will smile more, and will be more helpful to themselves and others."

Lechev is marking his 75th birthday with the exhibition at Varna's Largo Art Gallery, at which a bilingual catalogue of his works will be presented. It was published with support from the Culture Fund of Varna Municipality.

The exhibition showcases different periods of Lechev's work. In one hall works from the Abstract and Blue Period are displayed, as well as his most recent paintings, which are an apotheosis of life, said gallery owner Nelly Valcheva. In another space prints from the Vulkan art hub period can be seen. In them, Lechev's style is realistic, with a sometimes provocative choice of subjects, Valcheva said, drawing attention to Dynasty, a shocking and terrifying collective image of the functionaries of "mature" socialism. In another print, Reserve, one can see the little man of the time, ready to go behind a barbed wire fence and shut his eyes to reality in the daily battle for his bread. Valcheva recalled that during the Vulkan years, Lechev's prints were removed from exhibitions.

Gerogi Lechev was born in Varna on October 30, 1949. He works in graphics and painting. He has staged over a hundred solo exhibitions in Bulgaria, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Czechia, Portugal, the US, Japan, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Cuba and Chile. He has been on international juries in print exhibitions, and is a life member of the American Biographical Institute of Colorado and of the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England.