Georgi Petrov (1931–2025)
Painting
November 4–15, 2025
Georgi Petrov belongs to that generation of Bulgarian artists who, by virtue of their longevity, lived on the cusp between two different periods, spanning long periods of time from both the past and the previous era which we still inhabit. Significant in terms of volume and artistic value, his art simultaneously expresses and bears witness to the complex, sometimes contradictory, but in all cases characteristic and indicative trends that determined the appearance and fate of the plastic arts in Bulgaria during the second half of the past century and the early decades of the present one.
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest and a student of the famous Corneliu Baba, Georgi Petrov fully absorbed the lessons of the great master, who guided him towards affirming the timeless values of the plastic arts, especially painting. The future artist managed to get the most out of his communication with his renowned professor, developing and enriching his talent in mastering and revealing the magic of the spiritual pictorial substance, the complex and richly graded tonal gradations…
In the mature period of his development, Georgi Petrov naturally and logically departed from the well-trodden paths of established conventions and turned to paintings that transcended traditional genre divisions and formed a specific type of symbolic imagery requiring different approaches and interpretations for their perception. Such works are filled with a wide range of philosophical, sacred, and moral connotations. The visual image acquires the features and properties of a kind of enigma, of something that cannot be expressed or explained through words…
In recent years, as a result of both social changes and his own maturing as an artist, Georgi Petrov has arrived at even more profound, multifaceted, generalising images and plastic solutions. Some of the works are constructed from conventional pictorial forms, gravitating around basic geometric elements and configurations. As a rule, they are treated with tones and colours that testify to an even more noticeable departure from nature. The generalised interpretation of the formal components, the use of cycles or series, and the overall colour scheme are proof of true, authentic creative maturity and artistic wisdom. It is no coincidence that the cross and the crucifixion, for example, to which the author resorts more than once, are among those archetypal motifs that constitute some of the most universal ideological and thematic axes of the visual arts. We see strange figures, somewhat reminiscent of George Grosz’s Automatons – utterly depersonalised and closed in their inner mystery and silence.
Georgi Petrov’s art will remain in history as a convincing and lasting testimony, characterising in its own way the era in which we live.
Prof. Chavdar Popov, PhD in Fine Arts























































































