site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Artist Ivan Vukadinov Dies at 92

Bulgarian artist Ivan Vukadinov has died at the age of 92, the Union of Bulgarian Artists said on Sunday. 

"Ivan Vukadinov, the patriarch of our contemporary art, has died. The distance he maintained from traditional local tastes opened up a new perspective for creative exploration in Bulgarian art. Vukadinov is a discoverer of new symbols in timeless values, a creator of spiritual bridges to global art. He is a profoundly moral and reflective artist. Standing before his paintings, we find ourselves connected to something greater than ourselves - something real and profound," artist Greddy Assa wrote on Facebook. 

Vukadinov was born in the village of Lomnitsa, Pernik Region (Western Bulgaria) in 1932. In 1961, he graduated in Fine Art from the National Academy of Art in Sofia.

His works of art have been displayed in Italy, France, the UK, Russia and Latvia. In the 1970s, Vukadinov got the attention of Italian collectors, displaying his painting in four different exhibitions in Rome, Arezzo, Pisa and Grosseto.

Vukadinov is the first Bulgarian whose artwork has become part of the Vatican Museums’ collection. His painting In Memory of Heroes (Chile) dazzled the Vatican specialists when it was displayed in a Bulgarian art exhibition in Rome in 1975. The Bulgarian ambassador to Italy at the time, Venelin Kotsev, sent a cable to then socialist Bulgaria that the Vatican wishes to expand its contemporary art collection by purchasing Vukadinov's painting. After a period of silence, a refusal followed. Bulgaria declared that In Memory of Heroes was a national treasure and was not for sale. The painting was brought back to Bulgaria. Having learned about the refusal, Vukadinov got angry with the totalitarian regime and vowed never to exhibit his own art in Bulgaria again. The communist regime in Bulgaria fell in 1989 but it was not until 2006 when Vukadinov returned to Sofia's artistic life. He started participating in exhibitions at the Rakursi Art Gallery every year on the Ivanovden feast day (Synaxis of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, John), along with other artists named Ivan - Ivan Kirkov, Ivan Stoilov "Bounkera", Ivan Dimov, Ivan Andonov, Ivan Kolev, Ivan Milev, Ivan Kanev and Ivan Ninov. In 2022, the Vatican got in touch with the National Art Gallery in Sofia, once more seeking to acquire In Memory of Heroes. On Ivanovden January 7, 2022, nearly half a century after the socialists' refusal, Vukadinov exhibited the painting for which he had isolated himself from the audience.