site.btaArtist Georges Papazoff's 50th Death Anniversary Marked by Retrospective Exhibition in National Gallery

The National Gallery of Art will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of prominent artist Georges Papazoff (1894 – 1972) with a major retrospective, the first such exhibition in Sofia since 1988, the organizers of the event said. 

The current retrospective opens on December 16 in the building of the National Gallery of Art in Sofia. The works were curated by Maria Vassileva and include more than 100 paintings and drawings kept by the National Gallery in Sofia, the Art Gallery in Yambol, Southeastern Bulgaria, the Association of the Friends of the Petit Palais Museum in Geneva, the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb, and the corporate collection of Universal Investment Advisory SA, Geneva. Most of the works are displayed in Bulgaria for the first time. 

Papazoff went off to study in Europe at a very young age and until 1920 lived in Germany, in Prague and in Bulgaria. After that he lived in Berlin and Geneva, to settle in Paris at the start of 1924 and remain there until his death. Papazoff was among the first surrealists, and was an acquaintance of Joan Miro, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. 

The visitors to the Sofia exhibition will see some of the artist's earliest drawings done in Prague and provoked by his meetings with the German expressionists in Munich and Berlin. Also on display are works inspired by the Bulgarian folk tradition the artist did in 1925-1928. 

A prominent place in the exhibition is given to works Papazoff dedicated to his friend Andre Derain. Another highlight is Papazoff's rendering in 1957 of Henri Rousseau's "The Sleeping Gypsy". 

Curator Maria Vassileva says about him: "Papazoff is a typical embodiment of the universal movements of the first decades of the 20th century when the boundaries were provisional and art was a powerful tool for unification. Papazoff's work continues to connect several countries to this day and maintains the multilingual dialogue  about genuine values". 

Simultaneously with the retrospective in the National Art Gallery, the Square 500 Gallery in Sofia will host guest exhibitions of the artist's works from the art galleries in Sliven and Yambol.