Bulgarian painter and scenographer; He is considered the founder of Bulgarian Secession
Self-portrait
of Ivan Milev.
Ivan Milev Lalev
(
Bulgarian
:
Иван Милев Лалев
; 18 February 1897 – 25 January 1927) was a
Bulgarian
painter
and
scenographer
regarded as the founder of the Bulgarian
Secession
and a representative of Bulgarian
modernism
, combining
symbolism
,
Art Nouveau
and
expressionism
in his work.
Ivan Milev was born in the town of
Kazanlak
in the family of
shepherd
Milyu Lalev. In 1917?1918, he fought as a soldier in
World War I
. On 18 November 1918, the same year that he finished high school in his hometown, he arranged an exhibition in Kazanlak. For two years he was a teacher in
Gorski Izvor, Haskovo Province
. In 1920, he was admitted to the
National Academy of Arts
in
Sofia
, where he studied under Prof.
Stefan Badzhov
, and had three
one-man exhibitions
. He also contributed to the
communist
comic magazine
Red Laughter
(Червен смях,
Cherven smyah
) as an
illustrator
and
cartoonist
.
In the summer of 1923, he visited
Turkey
,
Greece
and
Italy
with a group of fellow students. He was introduced to the achievements of the
Italian Renaissance
and the
Italian Baroque
in
Rome
,
Naples
,
Florence
and
Venice
. In 1926, he graduated in set decoration from the National Academy and worked for the
Ivan Vazov National Theatre
as a stage designer. Afterwards he became an independent freelance painter and illustrator and he also painted
frescoes
. With a group of colleagues he took part in the
Shipka Memorial
design competition, but came second.
Generally living in poverty, Milev had a brief 18-month marriage to
opera singer
Katya Naumova; their daughter Mariya Mileva eventually became an architect. Milev died of
Influenza
in Sofia on 25 January 1927, shortly before his thirtieth birthday.
Regarded as one of the great masters of distemper and watercolour painting in Bulgarian art,
[1]
Milev often created socially loaded works. His characteristic decorative style was much influenced by the
European
Secession, but it was also related to Bulgarian folk art and
icon
painting. Milev's paintings are exhibited in the
National Art Gallery
,
Sofia Art Gallery
, the
Shumen
, Kazanlak and other cities' galleries.
Milev is portrayed on the
obverse
of the current 5
Bulgarian leva
banknote issued in 1999, with some of his works depicted on the
reverse side
.
[2]
[3]
Works in the Bulgarian National Art Gallery
[
edit
]
- Gadulka
player
? 1924,
gouache
- Triptych
or
The
Maglizh
monastery
? 1924, gouache
- Fortune-telling
? 1924?1926, watercolour and gouache
- Village
madonna
? 1925, watercolour
- Refugee women
? 1925, watercolour
- September 1923
? circa 1926, watercolour
- Winter landscape
? 1926, watercolour and gouache
- Winter fairy tale
? 1926, watercolour and gouache
- Our mothers are always dressed in black
? 1926, watercolour
- Refugees
? 1926, watercolour and gouache
- The black bread
? 1926, watercolour and gouache
- Composition
? circa 1926, watercolour and gouache
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Self-portrait (1920)
-
Ahinora (1922)
-
Obruchenie
, 1923.
-
The Maglizh monastery
, 1924.
-
Ahinora (1925)
-
September 1923
, 1925.
-
Legend of the
Holy Mountain
, 1926.
-
Our mothers are always dressed in black
, 1926.
-
Gadular (1926)
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Ivan Milev
.
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