Stanislav Pamukchiev
paintings
05.-21.04.2023
“Depot 80”, in the “ARTE” gallery, is an essential part of a larger project, on the occasion of the artist’s 70th anniversary, located mainly on the first floor of the Union of Bulgarian Painters exhibition center, Shipka 6. The exposition in “ARTE” is a parallel exhibition, presented as a time slot , depot – repository of the 80s, the beginning of the author’s creative development, of his plastic, stylistic and thematic searches.
This decade can be divided into the first “Tarnovo” period (until the year 84), in which there is persistent interest in the role of the “little” person, sympathy and recognition in his life’s passions, pains, hopes. The social criticism in these paintings diverges from the official, sham, historical optimism of the time. In the subsequent development, the social determinism of the characters, of their misfortunes in life, gradually lead to the generalization of the misfortunes of existence itself.
The human figure, stripped of its existential nakedness and pain, stoically bears the drama of its dualistic nature.
The 80s were a period of very intense work for the artist. The plastic experiments, the drawing deformation and expression of the form, the dense painterly, igneous surface, the dark color, embody and make visible the tensions and drama of human existence.
In the course of time, themes such as: Man in his social environment emerge persistently; Biographical motives; Human body; the themes “The Boat”, “On the River”, “Labor”, “Antithesis”, “The Man and the Woman”. The characters drawn are at the limit of their physical, emotional and spiritual vulnerability. They are left in the pain of their destiny, they have accepted to meet it and resent it. People in the trial of their daily existence, facing the abyss of unfathomable existence, with some vague metaphysical expectation.
Stoicism and dignity in uncovering and accepting the existential drama activates empathy, shared pain but also effort, a will to protect the human, a rebellion against paralyzing determinism, and a frantic search for meaning and salvation.
The 1980s for the artist were filled with humane pathos, with empathy and self-recognition in the basic foundations of life and awareness of art as a means of penetrating deep anthropological contents.
The project is implemented with the financial support of the National Culture Fund and the Ministry of Culture.