DECHKO UZUNOV. TRAVEL NOTES

From June, 24 to October, 26, 2025
Opening: June, 24 (Tuesday), 6:00 PM

 
The exhibition Dechko Uzunov. Travel Notes is dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the artist's birth and is part of the series of exhibitions organised by the Sofia City Art Gallery to mark the commemoration in 2024.  The exhibition was conceived as a traveling show and was presented at the Bulgarian cultural institutes in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Rome. As a natural conclusion to this tour, it will be presented during the summer months at the Dechko Uzunov Art Gallery, a branch of the Sofia City Art Gallery. The audience will have the opportunity to discover a lesser-known side of Dechko Uzunov's work—sketches, drawings, and watercolors that reflect his travels from the early stages of his career to the end of his life.

In the text accompanying the exhibition, Adelina Fileva writes: ”Hastily rendered in pencil, pen, or felt-tip marker on individual sheets or in various notebooks and sketchbooks, many of them grew into larger-format drawings, watercolours, or oil paintings. Certain places and cultures strongly impressed the artist, and a rich and diverse story of nature, architecture, people, and events emerged. In addition to Europe, Asia, and North America, the artist would constantly travel around Bulgaria. He was attracted by the small towns of the Balkans, the majestic mountains such as Rila, Pirin, and the Rhodopes, with their specific architecture and nature, by the rivers and lakes, as well as the Black Sea and the special port cities, so full of history – Nesebar, Balchik, Sozopol, Kaliakra. People rarely appear in these landscapes, and when they do, they are of no particular importance to the artist, just figures and silhouettes.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which is available at the Sofia City Art Gallery bookstore.

Notes:    
01. Kaliakra, Bulgaria, 1946, watercolour, ink on paper, 48.1 х 37.5 cm 
02. Street in Lisbon I, Portugal, 1983, watercolour on paper, 75 x 54,7 cm
03. Melnik, Bulgaria, watercolour on paper, 52.1 х 42 cm
04. Post
05. River I, Bulgaria, 1945, watercolour on paper, 37.5 х 48 cm        
06. Yangtze River I, China, 1958, watercolour, ink on paper, 27.5 x 38.9 cm        
07. Istanbul III, Turkey, 1943, watercolour on paper, 41.2 x 55 cm 
08. Cité, Paris, France, watercolour on paper, 31.5 x 47 cm