site.btaSofia City Art Gallery Marks 125th Anniversary of Bulgarian Artist Dechko Uzunov

An exhibition entitled Creations dedicated to Bulgarian artist Dechko Uzunov's 125th anniversary will be organized by Sofia City Art Gallery. The exhibition, which will showcase more than 90 portrait, still life, landscape and composition pieces, can be seen between May 16 and September 8, the organizers said.

The gallery has written in its website: "In an attempt to follow the development of Dechko Uzunov as an artist and unique creator of Bulgarian art, the Sofia City Art Gallery has put up an exhibition presenting his paintings by decade, as well as artworks showcasing the artist’s masterful use of watercolor techniques." The exhibition will also be accompanied by interviews with people who knew Uzunov, which will allow visitors a glimpse into the artist’s personality.

Courtesy of the Bulgarian National Television, art lovers will also be able to see Damyan Petrov’s documentary Uncle Dechko (2000).

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.