6. Rural landscape [1946]

The painting by Bencho Obreshkov "Rural Landscape" is representative of the artist's work during his stay in Romania. In the second half of the 1940s, Obreshkov was already a prominent artist in Bulgaria. By then he had participated in numerous regional and international exhibitions and was a respected name in the creative circles. Today we know that Bencho Obreshkov's work is extremely rich and in it can be found various influences from many stylistic concepts in art. Starting from 1946, when the artist left for Romania together with his colleagues Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, David Perets, Boris Angelushev and others, his interests were mainly focused on the landscape genre and rural-worker themes. The views from the various Romanian cities and villages painted by Obreshkov have a specific color - they use darker tones than the "bright and sonorous palette" known to the author until now. The stylistics, as Kiril Krastev explains in his work dedicated to the artist, is in relation to the real appearance of the localities that Obreshkov visited. This characteristic suggests the artist's desire for a more credible and documentary presentation of his surroundings in Romania. The work "Rural Landscape" from 1946, presenting a Romanian view, describes a stage in the creative development of Bencho Obreshkov, which had its influence on the construction of the artist's aesthetics after the political changes of the period. It also illustrates the cultural exchange between Bulgaria and Romania at the time. The group of Bulgarian painters also participated in a large joint exhibition "Bulgarian-Romanian Art Exhibition" in 1947, which was successively presented in Bucharest and in Sofia. From the monography of Obreshkov by Kiril Krastev, we find out that the artist exhibits 14 artworks. On the occasion of the exhibition, the Romanian critic Nicolai Argintesco-Amza commented: "... If the bold vitality, the tension of the temperament, the seriousness of a pure and sincere character are distinctive features of the Bulgarian people, then Bencho Obreshkov invests in his art a Western painting culture, at the same time wide and sophisticated'. We can sum up that Bencho Obreshkov's artworks created in the years spent in Romania are characteristic and distinctive in his overall artistic approach. They can also be seen as a kind of turning point in his future artistic pursuits. (A.M.)

References

Krŭstev. Kiril (1982), Bencho Obreshkov, Sofia: ed. Bulgarian artist

Dimensions

width 45 cm, height 37.5 cm, custom 37,5 × 45 cm

Description

oil on canvas

Dating

1946

PROVENANCE

Obreshkov's family collection until approx. the end of the 1970s; Boyan Radev collection until 2019; private collection from 2019.

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