Exhibition Opening: Retrospective

19:00 Sofia Gallery

Artist: Alexander Kaprichev

COLOURFUL CONTEMPLATIONS
COLOURFUL COTEMPLATIONS
Paintings and watercolours

Alexander Kaprichev brilliantly demonstrated the boundless expressive options of the non-figurative. The elements of his pictorial language – the dot, the line, the spot, the plane, the form, the colour, the texture – all in numerous, often unpredictable combinations, created a complex, rich, saturated, polyphonic orchestration, building pulsating, dynamic space, continuous metamorphoses of thickening and dispersing of the pictorial substance.

Alexander Kaprichev’s art can be read, and understood as a kind of externalization of internal, mental tension and conflicts, as a multiplicity of various clusters of individual associations, free flying unconstrained by the censorship of the rationale. Of paramount importance is the individuality of the plastic language, which is charged with significant meaning. The artist himself defined it as a symbol, a sign of unity between the spirit and the matter.

Despite honouring the memory of Alexander Kaprichev, this monograph also makes a considerable contribution to the future, yet unwritten history of Bulgarian 20th century visual arts.

Excerpts from the monograph to be launched at the exhibition
Alexander Kaprichev Both Known and Unknown by prof.Chavdar Popov, Ph.D.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Kaprichev was born in Varna in 1945. He graduated the Second High School of Varna and then in 1975 the Academy of Arts, Sofia, in Mural painting with prof. Georgi Bogdanov and prof. Mito Ganovski. After graduating the Academy, he started as a freelance artist in one of the studios of the former factory, “Vulkan”, turned into artists’ studios centre. During 1976 – 1978 he was elected Chair of Varna Society of Young Artists and in 1980 became Member of the Union of Bulgarian Artist.

Between 1999 and 2006 he lived and worked in Great Britain joining the Independent Studios in Leicester and Birmingham. Then, in 2006 he returned to his home town of Varna with plans for new creative work and the intention to have a retrospective exhibition, which unfortunately, he could not see through due to his sudden death in 2008.

Alexander Kaprichev ‘s art comprises fine art paintings and decorative-monumental works. He has left a considerable number of paintings, watercolours, drawings, etchings and projects for monumental art, murals, stained glass and tapestries. His style, if we are to define it, can be related to the lyrical abstraction and the abstract expressionism. Aleksander Kaprichev, however, drawing on the Bulgarian and world art traditions, which he has studied in depth, has created an individual and discernible style of his own.

During his lifetime, his artwork was shown at: Group exhibitions of Varna artists in Saragossa, Spain (1993), One-man show at Varna City Gallery “Boris Georgiev” in 1996, Print Biennale, Varna, 1997, 1999, Art Fair “Impression”, Plovdiv (1997, 1999); Mall Galleries , Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, London, (2000) ; Annual exhibitions of Independent Studios in Great Britain (2002,2003,2004,2005).

Some of his artwork is in possession of the National Gallery of Arts, Sofia, The Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, Varna City Gallery and private collectors.

In recent years Alexander Kaprichev’s art was shown in several exhibitions.

A retrospective exhibition of paintings, watercolours and drawings created in the years before 1999 Annual exhibitions of Independent Studios was curated by Vanko Urumov at Varna City Art Gallery between 1st July and 3rd August 2010.

Later on between 1st and 15th September 2010 a selection of his artwork from the same period were exhibited at Sredets Art Gallery of the Ministry of Culture, Sofia with curators Georgi Trifonov and Plamena Dimitrova-Racheva.

Watercolours created in England were shown for the first time at Gallery 8 from 1st until 30th April 2011.

In April 2013, Gallery 8, Varna exhibited some of the artist’s graphic art, etchings and lithographs some of which were shown to the public for the first time.

The eminent exhibition, Colourful Contemplations at the Sofia Art Gallery of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London between 26th November and 6th December 2013 features paintings and watercolours created in England between 1999 and 2006. Curator Professor Chavdar Popov PhD.