Retrospective exhibition

Stefanka Stoycheva.
Look at me

Central building / House Museum Deck Uzunov / House Museum Nenko Balkanski

17.7.2024 — 6.10.2024

Curator
Plamen V. Petrov
Graphic designer
Georgi Sharov
Translator
Joanna Bradshaw
Proofreader
Lora Sultanova
Collection manager
Tsvetelina Velkova
Assistants
Katya Hristova
Dr. Milen Alagenski
Kiril Georgiev
Tour guides
Dora Zarcheva
Lyuben Malchev
Maria Taneva
Photography, video filming and editing
Stefan Arabadzhiev

She grew up as a girl in a small town, in love with acrobatics and the world around her, with the landscape filled with winding streets, the silhouettes of the church, with the ramshackle houses, the people. In love with the view of the horizon from her window, and a sour cherry tree which would grow right before her eyes. The tree which, every autumn would be stripped by the cold winds in order to meet the winter bare, and in spring – like a true natural wonder – would come back to life, marked by the unrelenting cycle of time. It was just during these years of her first fascination, thanks to her en- counters with work of artist Nikola Zarov, she would discover the purpose of her own life: art. Today, 72 years since her birth, the artist Stefanka Stoycheva comments: ‘to embed time into the canvas and the motif – minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. Or to fritter time away with living? A life governed by matter and its inexorable laws? A great artist once said that when he paints, time stands still. I embed myself into my canvas, I fix my sensibility in order to preserve it and express it. I am there. Other things are meaningless. I haven’t chosen “The Other”’.

As early as 1983, when she would hold her first important exhibition, already an art graduate, bear- ing the responsibilities of motherhood and armed with the knowledge from her tutor Prof. Dobri Dobrev, the art critic Georgi Gerov would label Stefanka Stoycheva ‘an artist of the small town’. A cliché which he used not to describe her presence on the national art scene, but her sensitivity towards the little things, things which a large and cosmopolitan city devastates irrevocably in childhood. Even then, the critic noted that the work of the artist was imbued with a certain poetry, but not literariness, as Stefan- ka Stoycheva herself would also insist. These are paintings in which there ‘is no pleasing palette, light- ness or artistry of execution, unexpected imagery. Stripped from any and every aspect of formal com- position, Stefanka Stoycheva’s paintings have above all one main aim – to express emotion as simply and naturally as possible’.

More than half a century has passed since then. A time in which the artist would face many ad- versities in her life: journeys, disappointments, break-ups, deaths, passions and loves that she would not choose, but would endure in the name of her art and her choice to be happy with it. Paintings that don’t whine, don’t sentimentalise. Just as their creator, who even when she has to deal with yet anoth- er life disaster and seeks out empathy and help, talks about it all in a somewhat cool, detached way. But she is always grateful. It’s just another uncalled-for obstacle, a threshold through which she must step in order to keep reaching for the pencil, the charcoal, the colours, the brush. A threshold, an ef- fort, like breathing in air, like scything grass, like a dog’s bark. She must to go through it all, distilling it and leaving scars on the canvas. ‘The main feeling suggested in these paintings is timelessness – that typical provincial timelessness that slowly settles into the grey sky, flooding everything with its stillness, and calming movement.’ And it is as if all one sees is ‘calm, provincial, secure, impersonal. It does not help the imagination, on the contrary – it seems to crush and discolour it, but at the same time it makes us feel the eloquent silence of a dull pain embodied in the eternally drab season – neither autumn nor winter…’

Stefanka Stoycheva’s retrospective exhibition Look at me is the first of its kind to attempt a com- prehensive examination of the work of one of the most vivid living artistic presences in the Valley of the Roses, who already has her place in the narrative of the history of Bulgarian art over the past five dec- ades. The exhibition presents works from Stefanka Stoycheva’s professional career, which are set be- fore us as testimonies of an exceptional and natural emotion that remains untouched by the whirlwinds of life. Armed with the acrobatics of a child, the composure of a surgeon, the lightness of a dandelion, the heart of a bird, the passion of a courtesan, the sensitivity of a philosopher, she still seeks in her art what is invisible to the eyes. Stefanka Stoycheva paints slowly, even with difficulty. Often she returns to the same theme and motifs. To the same compositional choices. She repaints whole paintings. It is as if she is looking for a connection, a communion with scarcity. Often she will return to an old, already finished canvas to make another new change. Just a splash of colour, just a new stroke. This ceaseless reworking continues in Stefanka Stoycheva’s work to this day. As a choice, as a trauma, as an explana- tion in love, as a cool moan, as a muted and poetic, but unsentimental call. Look at me! The exhibition Look at me is spread over four different spaces of Art Gallery – Kazanlak and its lo- cations Dechko Uzunov House Museum and Nenko Balkanski House Museum. In them, the audience will be able to move through the artist’s various visual explorations from all her creative periods, but also to get closer to her personality via her own thoughts on art and living shared during the preparation of the exhibition. The exhibition also features her photographic experiences, in which she has immortalised the image of her son Pavlin, as well as numerous drawings and watercolours.

The exhibition Look at me is spread over four different spaces of Art Gallery – Kazanlak and its lo- cations Dechko Uzunov House Museum and Nenko Balkanski House Museum. In them, the audience will be able to move through the artist’s various visual explorations from all her creative periods, but also to get closer to her personality via her own thoughts on art and living shared during the preparation of the exhibition. The exhibition also features her photographic experiences, in which she has immortalised the image of her son Pavlin, as well as numerous drawings and watercolours.

The exhibition includes works from the National Gallery Sofia, Sofia City Art Gallery, Boris Georgiev Art Gallery – Varna, Petko Churchuliev Art Gallery – Dimitrovgrad, National Park-Museum Shipka-Bu- zludzha, Teofan Sokerov Art Gallery – Lovech, Art Gallery Radnevo, Prof. Ilia Petrov Art Gallery – Razgrad, Dimitar Dobrovich Art Gallery – Sliven, Art Gallery Stara Zagora, Nikola Marinov Art Gallery – Targovishte and private collections.

The team at Art Gallery Kazanlak express our heartfelt thanks to Yaroslava Bubnova – Director, Iva Veleva – Curator and Kristina Beleva – Restorer at the National Gallery – Sofia; Adelina Fileva – Director, Ilinka Chergarova – Restorer and Lyuben Domozetsky – Curator at the Sofia City Art Gallery; Dorothea Pavlova – Director of the Boris Georgiev Art Gallery – Varna; Antoaneta Stancheva – Director of the Petko Churchuliev Art Gallery – Dimitrovgrad and Emilia Stoeva – Curator at the same institution; Dr. Chavdar Angelov – Director and Georgi Stoykov – Curator at the National Park-Museum Shipka-Buzludzha; Valentin Uzunov – Director and Nelina Valeva and Magdalena Yotova – Curators at the Teofan Sokerov Art Gallery – Lovech; Alena Likova – Director of Art Gallery Radnevo and Antoaneta Darakchieva; Todor Todorov – Director and Diana Stancheva – Curator at Prof. Ilia Petrov Art Gallery – Razgrad; Margarita Peneva – Director and Adrian Avramov – Curator at Dimitar Dobrovich Art Gallery – Sliven; Dr. Katya Tineva-Gyurkovska – Director of Art Gallery Stara Zagora; Plamen Prodanov – Director of Nikola Marinov Art Gallery – Targovishte. We would like to personally thank Plamen Penchev, Rosen Donchev, Nadia Zaharieva, Marin Shishev and Neno Serkedzhiev for their professionalism and supportiveness during our work on the exposition.