24. View from Kavala [beginning of the '40s]

Boris Denev is an artist who develops and enriches the genre of landscape in Bulgarian art to some of its highest achievements. He is a Munich student of Professors Leo von Lofftz, Karl von Maar, and Angelo Yank. In his work from the mid-1930s, Boris Denev reveals himself as a "passionate traveller, curious and dedicated explorer of Bulgaria, and countries that he visits for longer (Germany, Greece) or for shorter (Italy, France, Turkey, present-day North Macedonia)." After the signing of the Balkan Pact in 1934, a group of artists, including Denev, Sirak Skitnik, Bencho Obreshkov, Dechko Uzunov, and Kiril Tsonev, left for Greece as part of a cultural exchange between Bulgaria and its southern neighbour. Characteristic of Boris Denev's work from that period, as Anton Staykov notes in his research, is that the landscape painter has a documentarian's reflex and draws at every opportunity, making both sketches that he might use for future paintings and ink drawings, often with a technique that has become his patent - a sort of "dry brush." The brush strokes of the artist, born in Turnovo, are sharp, ragged, and bold. He works expressively while skillfully balancing the whole work with delicate colour. Denev's love for and attitude towards natural beauty provoke him to seek various and intriguing viewpoints. After the 1930s, the artist's compositional solutions often aim to immerse the viewer's gaze through a curious perspective, revealing a picturesque and exciting view. "The poetic excitement, the grand flight in creative fantasy, the ability to sum up and separate the main from the secondary, and through the emotional image of nature to reveal the content, form the realistic beginning in Denev's landscapes." Irina Mihalcheva refers to Boris Denev's works from Kavala as "poetic-contemplative." They indeed seem to transport the viewer into the romantic setting of the Greek city. Critics from Denev's time comment that the artist uses new compositional approaches during this period, such as contrasting treatment of separate spatial planes and connecting the real with the fantastic in the painting. Interestingly, Boris Denev's works from Greece are not only picturesque and thrilling landscapes but also evidence of international and artistic relationships between Bulgaria and Greece after 1934. (A.M.)

References

Mihalcheva, Irina (1964). Boris Denev. Sofia: Pub. Bulgarian artist Staykov, Anton (2020). Boris Denev and his "Greek connection" in the period 1934 - 1943. Sofia: Pub. Visual arts and music, volume 1, ISNN 2683-1392

Dimensions

width 49.5 cm, height 35 cm

Description

oil paints on cardboard, Signed at the bottom left, in black, "B. Denev"

Dating

beginning of the '40s

PROVENANCE

Stancho Dimitriev's collection - respected lawyer and public figure in the 1950s.

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