Exhibition of Bulgarian Artists Georgy Trifonov and Stoyan Tsanev in Tsereteli Art Gallery

Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Bulgarian Institute of Culture, Russian Academy of Arts in honor of the Days of Bulgarian Spiritual Culture in Russia, the exhibition in Tsereteli Art Gallery presents paintings and graphic art by two celebrated Bulgarian artists Georgy Trifonov “Message Without Borders” and Stoyan Tsanev “The Real and Abstract”.

One of the most original masters of Bulgarian art Georgy Trifonov (1947-2011) has made a valuable contribution to the art of Europe. The work by Stoyan Tsanev also resolutely crossed the borders of Bulgaria and since the 1980s has become an integral part of the world art culture.

Georgy Trifonov and Stoyan Tsanev belong to the generation whose creative biography started in the early 1970s. Both of them since the 1970-s were frequents exhibitors in Bulgarian and international art shows, their works in group exhibitions were on display in Hungary, Venezuela, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, France, Czechoslovakia and many other countries. The exhibition in Tsereteli Art Gallery including more than 60 paintings and drawings is a good opportunity to make out their common features and differences, to understand the originality of each master.

Generously gifted Georgy Trifonov, who passed away last year, has had a talent of a painter, graphic artist and poet. The poetic component can be clearly sensed in many of his canvases. He was born in the Pleven (Plevna) region in 1947. In 1974 he graduated from the National Art Academy in Sofia where he studied under Prof. Peter Chuklev and Veselina Staikova. His solo shows were of big success in Old Plovdiv, Varna, Sofia and abroad: in Warsaw, Delhi, Moscow, Paris. His works are in the National Art Gallery in Bulgaria, Sofia Art Gallery, in museum and private collections in Germany, the United States, England and other countries.

A book graphic artist by education, Georgy Trifonov has realized himself in various types of art: painting; easel graphics; printing design; sculpture; decorative and monumental art. In the 1970s he created a number of major monumental paintings. His manner, generalized and rather relative, is close to the Western-European modernism. Among the artist’s favorite genres were portrait and still life enriched by complicated symbols. His theme painting related mostly to the Biblical topic and his reflections on historical fates of peoples of Europe reveals his urge for a dialogue with old masters. Georgy Trifonov is also known as a talented illustrator who made illustrations for over one hundred fiction books. “When a brush was not enough for Georgy Trifonov to express his feelings, poetry was his first aid. His poetry was as distinguished and figurative as his canvases” – say his friends about the master. “The vernisage of his life has closed too early, in his silent and delicate manner… Trifonov’s poems and paintings now speak instead of him and for him – explicitly and powerfully”.

Stoyan Tsanev was born in 1946 in Burgas on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. In 1973 he graduated from the graphic art department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His solo shows besides Sofia were held in Antwerp, Bratislava, Vienna, Delhi, Luxemburg, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Frankfurt. Stoyan Tsanev is a holder of many honors and awards, both Bulgarian and international, presented to him in Germany, Ireland, Spain, Norway, USA. His works are in museum and private collections in Bulgaria, as well as in collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Finland, Museum of Modern Art in Delhi, National Art Gallery in Oslo and many others.

The work of Stoyan Tsanev can be considered as a visiting card of today’ Bulgarian art. Tsanev’s contribution to European and world art culture is first of all seen as a message of the national Bulgarian spirituality. At the same time, in his works there is his evident adherence to the international trend of abstract expressionism.

The artist works in painting, graphic art and ceramics. He lives on the shore of the Black Sea and appreciates his deep connection with this old region situated on the crossroads of cultures.

His distinguished features are his creative enthusiasm, aspiration for expression of the world harmony, his calling for the good and consent denying such things as hatred and destruction. Abstract forms in his recent works as if send us to the notional abstractions of Einstein’s relativity theory. Stoyan Tsanev persistently tries to find the forth dimension in his own spiritual universe, where every sign is full of quite a definite meaning, but simultaneously has some more meanings in the context of the surrounding world.

The melody of his line, laconism of colors, refined harmony of rhythms and colors, sharpness and trembling of his world-view prove: the author’s unusual view exceeds the trivial and ordinary, a “linear” perception. The artist persists on the spontaneity of the world, that does not yield to unification and mechanical systematization. Stoyan Tsanev’s canvases, water colors, lithographs, graphic sheets and ceramic works sometimes resemble peculiar flowers extending into the future of art.




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