Passing figures
exhibition of paintings and sculptures
from 13 May to 9 June 2021
“Art is a great lesson in sincerity. The true artist always depicts what he thinks, and is not afraid to crush existing norms. In this way he teaches sincerity to those like him. “- Auguste Rodin
With great pleasure from May 13 to June 9, 2021 Le Papillon Art Gallery presents the work of the talented and beloved Varna sculptor and artist Hristo Hristov with his latest enigmatic figures executed in bronze and color.
Hristo Hristov is an author whose works have become an integral part of the permanent exhibition of Art Gallery Papillon. And his solo exhibitions, carried out periodically in the exhibition hall of the gallery, are extremely successful both among fans of contemporary art in Bulgaria and arouse interest in foreign collectors. Recognized as one of the best Bulgarian sculptors with an authentic recognizable style, he is no less valuable in recent years for his wonderful associative abstract painting, revealing the colorful layers of the soul of an artist captivated by the form and its line. The typical style of the author to express himself with firmness, intertwined with enigmatic clear images, signs, codes and reliefs conquers the foreign audience in his successful performances in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Poland and proves that his work is not limited to local , and meets the aesthetic understanding and love of people of different nationalities and cultures.
Hristo Hristov’s art has a strong characteristic handwriting, enigmatic and multi-layered. It brings the freedom of the line when it comes to drawing, complex, often muted colors, layered, when we look at his painting and strong energy, passion embedded in the stylized form with references to antiquity, when we touch his sculpture. It is monumental – as a way of expression, expressive and categorical – as color, composition, messages, always balancing firmness and tenderness in clearing the lines and form. The main thing that excites the author is the figure and its message as a philosophy, history. The silhouettes of Hristo Hristov passing through the heart and mind are skillfully hinted at in stylized images and his characteristic tangle of reliefs. Man is the protagonist of his work, and his emotions, embedded in bronze or canvas, reveal to us the aspiration of Man, from whom not only the artist is inspired. We see mysteriously recreated universal dreams, aspirations, emotional delights, the natural joy of life and of accomplishments. In his sculpture, movement, plasticity and determination are one of the first sensations that are evoked in the viewer. Influenced by the information and history-laden reliefs of antiquity, but also of purely Christian traditions, the author creates symbolic images and codes through which we recognize elements of this heritage in the interpretation of the particular theme, as well as in the choice of figurative language. of sculptural or pictorial works.
True to his inner spirit and strong creative potential, his bronze sculptures are charged with powerful energy and pathos, following a common thread, emphasizing the primacy of his favorite material – bronze in the unique style of the artist. There is no lack of the symbolic meaning of the gesture, both in the sculptures and in the drawings, collages, canvases. Hristov suggests cutting the space from the heavy metal, and his experienced skillful hands seem to tame the material and create an impressive gallery of expressive images with monumental sound and modern plastic solutions. And in his paintings Hristo Hristov approaches uncompromisingly, his painting is dense, seen in its semantic monolithicity, giving sensory expression to the ideas he has, sought and thought in colors and shapes before they are created in three dimensions, like sculptures and complementing them with a magnificent way. His paintings have an abstract sound in a soothing color with bright accents, with figurative references to his form and sculpture, but each canvas evokes associative suggestions and questions in the viewer and creates a sense of history, which everyone completes himself. The silhouettes of his passing figures remain a lasting trace in the thought and consciousness of the viewer, who seeks freedom of spirit and a sense of harmony between form and color. Because beyond the material, “sculpture is poetry and painting is a song,” as Hristo shares.
Hristo is inspired by the work of Genko Genkov, who received recognition from the famous artist, who owned his sculptures, just as he is always sincere in his art and in his works.
According to Henry Moore, “In sculpture, form must be felt simply as a form, not as a description or a memory. For example, the egg must be perceived as a solid form, different from meanings, as food or from the literary idea that it will become a bird “- a necessary clarification, especially in cases where looking at a particular sculpture we are looking for a story.
The exhibition can be seen from May 13 to June 9, 2021 in the exhibition hall of the gallery in Varna, 12 Dragoman Street, and can also be viewed on the website artpapillon.com
The exhibition is part of the Annual Program for Exhibition and Event Activities of the Art Gallery “Papillon”, supported by the National Fund “Culture” at the Ministry of Culture, and is accompanied by a catalog, which contains all the latest works of Hristo Hristov.
Leave a Reply