Hall 11
GOLD OF DOBRUDZHA
The collection “Gold of Dobrudzha” presents artworks dedicated to Dobrudzha theme created from 1890s till 1990s. The daily life of the local people and the landscape determine the thematic content of the artworks. They are presented in many aspects and are interpreted through different expressive means. The romantic images in the landscape genre are related to the appearance and development of the ideas in “Native Arts” artistic circle of the 1920s. Leading is the development of art with bright national appearance and the objects are the regular working people – their physical and moral endurance and beauty. The artists are searching for the national specifics in folklore-thematic aspect.
Land of Dobrudzha
Ilia Iliev
Baker
Mrkvichka
In 1960s begins a new dynamic development of the expressive language. Subject-matters from the old village life, motives from the legends, tales and stories determine the themes of the paintings. The search of inner meaning, the desideration to penetrate into the very core of Bulgarian mentality according to the geographic positioning and the historic past of the different ethnic ingredients is embodied in the concept of this thematic range of artworks – like “Baker” of Ivan Mrkvichka (1890s). Content solutions can be outlined as basic guidelines in monumental-heroic terms, retrospective-contemplative poetry of the past; gentle lyrical experience of the beauty of Bulgarian nature, landscapes close to the naive; dramatic tension; the discovery of the fatefully mystical meaning of different countries of folk life.
The village life in the past, motives of the folk stories, tales and legends determine the thematic range of the artworks. Wheat harvesting, threshing, wavy grain fields, watermills – these are part of the themes in canvases of Nayden Petkov, Nikola Tahtunov, Keazim Isinov, etc.
The themes of fertility and the beauty of Bulgarian woman are leading in the canvases of Vladimir Dimitrov – the Master. Dimitar Kazakov with “Summer” and “Sitting on the ground” is one of the artists that has found his place in 1970s in the Louvre and many other museums and collections all over the world.
Baker
Mrkvichka
Keazim Isinov’s “Fertility” and “Gold of Dobrudzha” – given the name of the collection – are like fairy tale illustrations of Bulgarian’s life and labor.
We could draw the conclusion that in the present landscape paintings gathered by the “Gold of Dobrudzha” theme there is a common compositional tendency – the figurative images in the pictorial space are thought in relation to each other and their surroundings, and thus different features are highlighted from the immense beauty of nature and the man’s connection with it – in everyday life, work, holidays and spirituality. Despite the variety of painting styles and trends that the various generations of artists follow in their art, the theme of fertility, beauty, rich historical and cultural tradition of this region has gained a significant scale in our contemporary visual arts. Exciting, beautiful and unforgettable are the images of undulated like a sea golden wheat fields of Dobrudzha, the golden grain pyramids, the images of people with golden tan, creating the golden gifts of land with their labor, illuminated by the golden sun whose rays give birth and multiply the treasure of life.
