On the eve of his 90th anniversary, the renowned Bulgarian artist Emil Stoychev personally attended the opening of the exhibition "Imagination is My Bloodstream" at UniCredit Studio at the UniCredit Bulbank headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The retrospective exhibition "Imagination is My Bloodstream" by Emil Stoychev was shown from February 27th to May 6th at the Sofia City Art Gallery, while the original project by Alexander Sokerov, as part of the exhibition, welcomed art connoisseurs February 25th – 21 March at UniCredit Studio
During the official opening was also presented an original animation by the talented visual artist Alexander Sokorev, dedicated to Emil Stoychev – unlocking the door to the world of mystery and unspoken elements in the artist's work, taking imagination on a journey.
An interesting detail is that the animation was generated by specially trained AI, using only motifs from Emil Stoychev’s art. Art enthusiasts showed exceptional interest in the event and in the opportunity to speak personally with the great artist, who continues to divide his time between Sofia and Paris, while remaining actively creative.
Emil Stoychev (b. 1935) is one of the most significant figures in Bulgarian visual arts, recognized as a phenomenon since his very first solo exhibition. He began as a landscape artist. By the mid-1970s, the figurative characters, which had sporadically inhabited his landscapes and interiors, became dominant with a fundamentally changed role – as the center around which the “plot” of his compositional solutions unfolds.
Over time, he seems to retreat from the expansive spaces of his landscapes and compositions into the confined circle of an interior space. Curator Ivo Milev arranged the retrospective exhibition – selecting extraordinary pieces from landscapes to the recognizable abstract portraits.
“In a painting, there must be mystery, enigmatic elements,” says Stoychev. “The secret is tempting and captivating as long as it remains a secret. Once it is revealed, it becomes mere banality. That is, we can only be directed towards the secret. And the only discovery, the unveiling worth pursuing, is our own discovery and our own unveiling – the energy invested in it. This is the simple economics of the secret,” adds Ivo Milev.
UniCredit Bulbank supports music and fine arts, placing a primary focus on discovering and encouraging young talents. To fulfill its priorities in this area, the bank organizes exhibitions, competitions, and other art events with the help of its contemporary art gallery, "UniCredit Studio."
