site.btaBurgas Art Gallery Hosts Exhibition with Paintings Inspired by Women

Two collections in one exhibition hall presented the Burgas Art Gallery "Petko Zadgorski" on the eve of the celebration of love and wine. One shows a selection from the cultural institution's "Paintings" fund, in which the main protagonists are women. The second brings together 16 paintings donated to the gallery by the local newspaper "Black Sea Lighthouse", which collects works by Burgas artists from the 1960s to the 2000s.

"Over the years, the female images preserved in the paintings in the gallery's collection have presented women in a variety of roles - mother, grandmother, wife, seductress, lover, muse, worker", said the gallery's director Georgi Dinev. "We have tried to cover as large a range of these images of her as possible, created by artists of different generations". The period they cover is from the 1930s with one of the most famous works by Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master "The Girl with the Apples" and reaches the first decade of the current 21st century.

In addition to being represented as images, women are also present as artists. The exposition includes three authors - Slavka Deneva, Vaska Balareva and Masha Zhivkova-Uzunova. What is interesting about the latter is that alongside her painting of a nude female body, Masha Zhivkova-Uzunova is also present as an image painted by her husband Dechko Uzunov.

"Some of the paintings have been shown over the years, but never collected in this way", Dinev explained. Among the artists from the "Paintings" fund, other names such as Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Marko Behar and others stand out. Some of them see the woman as a muse, others as a lover, mother or working woman. "It is interesting that these 16 paintings, which we received as a donation from the Black Sea Lighthouse newspaper, fit very well into the exposition," the director added.

The earliest work, donated by the newspaper Chernomorski far, actually turned out to be an early painting by Georgi Baev from 1969. Among the donated works there is another painting by Baev, which will further enrich the collection of "Petko Zadgorski" with works by the artist. In 2024 the Burgas gallery published a thematic catalogue dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Burgas artist, accompanied by a major exhibition of his work. 

"I believe that the place of art is not in basements and attics and that is why we decided it is better for these paintings to continue their lives with dignity, becoming part of the collection of the Burgas gallery", said Chernomorski far editor-in-chief Silvia Shatarova. "Here is their natural home, where they will be able to meet the audience of different generations, as well as to receive the necessary care for their proper preservation," she added.

She added that the paintings were mostly collected, donated or in some cases bought back in the period up to 2000, as the newspaper's management had a marked affinity for art over the years. "The current selection for the donation was made in conjunction with the gallery staff", she explained. The works also include canvases by Nenko Tokmakchiev, Yordan Marinov, Yordan Petrov, Georgi Dinev, Dionisii Dionisiev, Zhivko Ivanov, Kiril Simeonov, Kolyo Stanchev, as well as several unknown local artists.

The exhibition can be viewed until the end of March.