The exhibition I, the Artist is retrospective in nature and chronologically recreates the creative path of Stefan Gatsev (1935–1986). A graduate of the first class of the High School of Fine Arts, followed by a degree in Painting from the National Academy of Art under Prof. Iliya Petrov and further studies in Decorative and Monumental Arts in the studio of Prof. Georgi Bogdanov, Stefan Gatsev was a painter with a categorical line and keen insight, which made him a master of composition. He possessed a pronounced sense of monumentality of form and an enviable perception of the tectonics of volumes, while at the same time managing to be laconic and impressive with the most economical of means.

Stefan Gatsev produced the main body of his painting legacy in the 1960s and 1970s. Works from this period include the fundamental large-format figural compositions Concrete, Tracks, Height, and Apocalypse, as well as the polyptych Dawn. He showed these in thematic collective exhibitions, and some of them were awarded prizes. After the mid-1970s, Gatsev devoted himself to decorative monumental art, and his body of paintings was reduced to smaller formats, in which the main role was played by the line—formative, precise, but at the same time, expressive.

This exhibition of some 80 works includes pieces owned by the artist’s family and private collections, as well as works from the inventory of the Sofia City Art Gallery, the National Gallery, the Boris Denev Art Gallery – Veliko Tarnovo, the Petko Churchuliev City Art Gallery – Dimitrovgrad, the Dobrich Art Gallery, the Plovdiv City Art Gallery, the Smolyan Art Gallery, the Stara Zagora Art Gallery, the Regional History Museum – Blagoevgrad, and the Regional History Museum – Kardzhali.

Curator: Adelina Fileva, Suzana Nikolova, Nikoleta Gologanova