The National Academy of Arts in Sofia marks the 160^th birth anniversary of prominent artist and one of the founders of the School of Painting in Bulgaria, Ivan Mrkvicka (1856 – 1938).  The exhibition has been in the making for more than four months and central to it are the portraits and genre compositions created by the great painter.

Ivan Mrkvicka is a Bulgarian artist of Czech descent. He was a painter, pedagogue and a public figure in Bulgaria’s artistic circles after the 1878 Liberation. He was among the founding fathers of modern Bulgarian art. Mrkvicka’s most important legacy is in the ethnographic genre including themes such as rituals and popular festivals like for instance the famous painting Ratchenitsa Dance. The artist was educated in the Paris Academy of Arts and in the Art Academy in Munich. Through his career in Bulgaria he had a major contribution into the development of the country’s post-liberation cultural life. His ethnographic compositions are acknowledged as emblematic for his time. He was among the founders of the first union of artists and among the organizers of the first exhibitions.

During his lifetime Ivan Mrkvicka was surrounded by co-thinkers and followers. Their works have also been displayed in the current exhibition at the National Gallery of Arts. The total of mounted artworks is 112 by 50 artists, some of them shown to the wider audience for the first time. The exhibition represents an attempt to position the legacy of Ivan Mrkvicka into the context of Bulgaria’s diverse artistic life at the end of 19 and the early 20 c. Art critic and curator of the exhibition Bistra Rangelova says more:

“The exhibition marks the 160^th birth anniversary of Ivan Mrkvicka but it also casts light on the time when he appeared in Bulgaria and the whole picture back then: the associates with whom he worked, shared the same views and fought for the creation of the first artistic institutions in Bulgaria. He was a prolific and quite interesting painter but was not alone on the art scene. With this display we try to draw up the panorama that is not always readily visible and recalled, an array of creative personalities – in terms of nationality and individual styles, who laid the foundations of modern Bulgarian painting. Some of them are Anton Mitov, Ivan Angelov, Konstantin Velichkov, Jaroslav Vesin, Georgi Kanela, Oto Horeishi and others. The exhibition features 50 artists who worked in the post-Liberation years. Some of them are not familiar to the wider public. Half of the artists have never been on display, or have only been displayed once in a while and forgotten. Our idea is to show exactly such artworks and shake out of oblivion some names that we have to revisit to evaluate accordingly the genuine input that Mrkvicka made into the history of modern Bulgarian art. This artistic legacy should be preserved, appreciated and promoted.”

The exhibition is on until 4 September under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture.

Photos from the exhibition: Luiza Lazarova