Drawing Back the Veil

Those wanting a sense of how the events of the last century have impacted on the soul of one Balkan country have a unique opportunity in Sofia these next few weeks. Three exhibitions in Sofia offer samples, first, of the paintings of Bulgarians who had the opportunity to study in France in the half-century before the communist takeover of 1944. By definition, those able to avail themselves of such opportunities came from richer families and were therefore often targeted in the immediate aftermath of that takeover.  They included figures such as Nikola Tanev, Tseno Todorov and Constantin Shterkelov. The National Gallery exhibition runs until 30 May.

Sofia City Gallery has an exhibition which some may think overdue called “Forms of Resistance – 1944-1985” with exhibits selected and presented to give a sense of how the world of Bulgarian (and central European) artists dramatically changed as their countries slipped behind the Iron Curtain from 1944. The State Security files (and prison drawings) of Alexander Bozhinov and Alexander Dobrinov (leading caricaturists) and others are a powerful initial exhibit… as are the 3 large industrial landscapes of one of Bulgaria’s greatest painters, Nikola Tanev, produced after his release from almost a year in jail. The roll-call of imprisoned or disgraced painters covers Bulgaria's main artistic names - and must have had a devastating effect on the creative spirit...... 
The gallery has produced an excellent video – with the paintings shown from the 4^th minute

I first realized the scale of the veil which has been drawn over this subject a few years ago when I was compiling an annotated list of 140 Bulgarian painters for my first booklet…. "Bulgarian Realists – getting to know the Bulgarians through their art". The caricaturist Rayko Alexiev had died in his first weeks in prison and the superb landscape artist Boris Denev  was basically was banned for life but, slowly, the internet revealed (with help from google translate!) scraps of information which are not offered in the various catalogues and monographs which the Bulgarian galleries publish.

The Bulgarians, it appears, do not like to discuss this period…..there are still too many skeletons… the belated attempts at official investigations have been half-hearted – as one woiuld expect when its main political party (BSP) is effectively the old communist party….   

The (bi-lingual) text which accompanies the City Gallery’s current exhibition is, therefore, for me the first detailed explanation of what exactly happened to artists in Bulgaria – both in the immediate aftermath and as communist power consolidated and evaporated…..    

Fascinating to discover that, in the early weeks of the takeover (when the bodies of the murdered political and government elite were still warm), 30 artists were meeting to set up the first Union of Artists – and that Nikola Rainov emerged as its president!

The Zhendov affair (of 1950) named some 30 deviant painters and led to the dismissal from their academic jobs of painters of the caliber of Ivan Nenov and Kiril Tsonev. Any hint of “mawkish naturalism” was pounced upon as an act of sabotage. A hierarchy of accepted painting led with portrayals of political leaders followed by glorification of labour and liberation. Landscapes were accepted only if, like Tanev’s, they showed socialism in action….     

As the exhibition recognizes, artists responded in very different ways – some with alacrity, others by turning to other activities, a few with various forms of escape or rebellion….

Not surprisingly in a part of the world in which recent history is strongly disputed, the City Gallery exhibition – which runs until 26 May – has attracted some controversy.

The final exhibition I want to mention is that of Bulgaria’s grand old man and doyen of Bulgarian art - Svetlin Rusev who is still very active at the age of 83 and whose latest work is on display in the  Seasons Gallery at Krakra St.

Rusev is a unique and towering figure - Chairman (1973-85) of the Union of Bulgarian Artists but then fell out of favour with the authorities for his rebellious activities. His position allowed him to build up a fantastic collection of art which he has donated to two public galleries, one in Pleven, the other in Sofia at what used to be his studio very near the Alexander Nevsky Church.

He straddles both the communist and the modern period

On resilience; and wines and painters from Pazardzhik

So much happening – the continuing human and political crisis of the ongoing wave of immigration to Europe’s shores; the Panama Papers and its political fallout in Britain – not least on the Brexit vote; the last remnants of the steel industry being sacrificed in Britain to the neo-liberal God…..and all I  do is wallaw in self-pity from the facial discomfort of the past 2 months!!

I know our various worlds have always been governed by cycles of gloom and bravado but, somehow, in the past half-century, social “expectations” seem to have experienced a tectonic shift – such as to have made us incapable of dealing with a world that is in decline….

A few years back, there was extensive talk of “resilience” – the social capacity to deal effectively with crises….why some communities seem to have this….and others don’t. Sad that this concept seems to have gone the way of all fads…Or is it perhaps that we have simply become overwhelmed with the notion of “Crisis”???

Bulgaria is a society which, at first sight, seems to have avoided the temptations of debt-driven modernisation….even in Sofia most people eke out a living – and one-person businesses seem to be the norm. A wine-tasting in young Asen’s little Vina Orrenda (at the Russian Monument) offers a real social occasion in such a modest society and I was glad to have made the trip last Thursday. Not just for the excellent taste of the Riverside range of wines being offered by the Manistira winery (3 whites; a Rose; and 2 Mavruds) but for the easy conversation which flowed between us. The left part of my face is still semi-frozen and I therefore have problems tasting – but I coped manfully!

It was the first time I had attended a group wine-tasting – and I appreciated the ceremonial aspects as Asen and a young lady first introduced the winery and the wines and Asen then poured us our respective samples…

It was also nice to be approached by one guest and be asked for my opinion on the wines….and to have the chance to speak to the 2 young ladies representing the winery (who remembered me apparently from the November wine-tasting!). It's in a village near Pazardzhik and I suggested they might put Pazardzhik’s most famous painter on one of their etiquettes – Stoian Vassilev. He was a prolific painter (the local museum is reputed to have some 5000 of his paintings and sketches). I have 4 of his - the first being very untypical. The second is more typical of his style......

The Royals and Brexit

Fascinating story early this morning about an imminent (and potentially constitution-shattering) intervention by the British Royals in Britain's current debate on whether to leave the European Union

Using outside experts who advised that the intervention would need to be presented by a figure with impeccable European credentials, a strong affinity with the continent and the character to speak out, the family has decided that the move should fronted by Prince Philip who has apparently "been hugely impressed by the way the EU stepped in, not just once but several times, to save Greece,” said one official with knowledge of events. “He admires what Tsipras and Varoufakis achieved – in fact he told friends he sees something of his younger self in the charismatic, motorbike-riding, eye-for-the-ladies Varoufakis. Mind you,” added the source, “he also thinks the Greeks would never have got into this mess if the colonels had still been in power.”,,,,,,,,

The leader of Vote Leave is Michael Gove – "that awful little leaker who put it about that the Queen wanted out. They can’t stand him. And as for Boris, the other main outer – he’s a cycling maniac from Islington. All he has done for the royal family is make it difficult to get around London in a decent-sized Daimler. And the third of the trio – Farage – what another awful little man".

Only when I reached the reference to the Greek colonels, did I realise that it is, today, the first of April!!!

Sofia's new galleries

An impressive new gallery has just opened just 100 metres from my flat – the Red Point Gallery – with a display of young Bulgarian graphic artists.

With the opening in recent years ago of the Finesse and Nuance Galleries in superb buildings in the heart of Sofia and, last autumn of the Nirvana Gallery, in a lovely 1920's house, Sofia now boasts an even more inviting choice for artistic exploration. And all within easy walking distance….

Clearly an update is needed of my 2012 post in which I extolled the virtues of the Sofia galleries, the more interesting of which I itemized in the little book Introducing the Bulgarian Realists

Then I listed 16 galleries – but the latest version of the book Bulgarian Realists – updated edition has 29  which offer examples of the older tradition in Bulgarian painting.

This makes commentary and comparison all the more challenging – but, owing no favours, I can let rip….

Well-displayed art in a lovely setting may warm one’s heart but is not actually my favoured setting for finding art – it signals the curator well down the marketing path with an eye to the higher end of the price market.

I vastly prefer the cluttered spaces of Rumen Manov ’s Neron gallery (Tsar Samuel 12) and Stefan Stefanov’s antique shop (in Tsar Assen 33) - where the promise of a hidden treasure lurks amongst the piles of paintings on the floor….    Valeri Filipov can also offer enticing piles of unframed paintings from the backroom of his impressive new gallery at 11 Vasil Levsky Bvd. 

Up until November 2015 I thought Victoria gallery was Sofia’s only auction house but Enakor gallery (just off Vitosha at the Court of Justice end) started strongly in summer 2015 and held 4 auctions in 2015 – the premises are probably the best Sofia has to offer….Their online catalogues can be accessed on the link…….In a way I’m relieved (or my chequebook is) that I’ve been missing out……perhaps because they’re just starting. Their prices are a bit on the high side – and their sales therefore only about 15% of what’s on offer.This is their November 2015 catalogue

The Loran Gallery at 16 Oborishte St mounts exhibitions every couple of months – focusing on Bulgarian painters from the last century. Their website has a good collection of paintings – a nice feature being the portraits of the 100 or so artists in the list. 

Despite the new galleries, however, it is Vihra Pesheva  of Astry Gallery who remains for me Bulgaria’s most brilliant impressario of private galleries - singlehandedly seeking out and promoting living artists – young and old – with frequent special exhibitions and materials. Vihra shares her enthusiasm so readily; and I never feel I am imposing when I drop in….. This is what I said some years ago about the Gallery –

Astry Gallery (under Vihra's tutelage) is unique for me amongst the Sofia galleries in encouraging contemporary Bulgarian painting. Two things are unique - first the frequency of the special exhibitions; but mainly that Vihra follows her passion (not fashion). I am not an art professional - but Vihra has a real art of creating an atmosphere in which people like me can explore the modern scene. I have been to a couple of other exhibition openings here and they were, sadly, full of what I call "pseuds" - people who talked loudly (mostly Embassy people) and had little interest in the paintings (except perhaps their investment value). 
Vihra and her Astry Gallery attract real people who share her passion and curiosity. It is always a joy to pop in there - and talk to her, visitors, artists and other collectors.

Illness Break

My readers will be puzzled by my silence of the past few weeks - so let me explain.

Global and European events do, of course, make it is increasingly difficult to present the positive note I strive for here. After all, this is a blog crafted by someone who values discovery and openness and who has always opposed the ravings of ideologues and conspiratorialists which seem to overwhelm us these days…….

But that is not the only reason for my silence of the past 6 weeks…… I have been hit by a debilitating condition which doesn’t seem to have a strong media profile – known in Britain by a term which resonates with seas-side holidays – that of “shingles”. It’s a virus which affects the nervous system and starts with Herpes (which I always associated with sexually-transmitted disease!) and can often then transmute (as it did in my case) into full-blown “Post herpetic neuralgia” which numbs part of the face and gives periodic sharp pains....

Initially I had toothache and the dentist was about to do an extraction (and a couple of implants) when the anesthetist alerted him to a heart irregularity, leading to a visit to the cardiologist who put me on a “halter” for a 24 hour test. By then the Herpes was identified – and, a week later, the full PHN.

For the next few weeks, therefore, I am resigned to this daily discomfort. I eat minimally and stopped all alcoholic intake – with my belly already showing the benefits! The downside, however, is listlessness…….

So please take advantage of this gap to read the various books I have put online….not just In Praise of Doubt – a blogger’s year but previous years’ posts which are available on an annual basis

And the thematic treatments which can be accessed at the top right of the blog…… 

Simulating Brexit

Most people are fed up with the way television presents “big issues” – either short soundbites or spokesmen for two extreme positions lined up to bash one another over the head with platitudes..

The Eurosceptic website Open Europe offered a brilliant example yesterday of an alternative format – that of Wargames – in which people are given a role to play in a simulated exercise whose object is to identify weak points in one's own and “enemy” positions.

Yesterday’s Open Europe exercise was about Brexit – with the morning being devoted to the  current negotiations and the afternoon to the scenario that the British people vote for withdrawal from the European Union. Such events require good prior briefing – and this is Open Europe’s excellent 24 page briefing. A short summary of the key moments and exchanges is here  

And this is the full event - for those who have 6 hours to spare!

I am no friend of the European Union – despite (or rather because of) my two decades of working on its programmes since 1990. And I was an early visitor in the mid/late 1970s to the British Commissioners at European Commission HQ (eg ChristopherTugendhat) and helped establish in those days a high profile for Strathclyde Region in the EU …I was not one of the Labourites (like Tony Blair) who supported the 1983 Labour manifesto for withdrawal – although by then I was getting a bit testy about the claims Europe was making for its funding programmes (whose financial input the British exchequer was quickly deducting from its budgetary support to the Region).

My experience in the 1980s of a variety of European working groups also made my very impatient with the overblown rhetoric of not only southern partners but with that of the French….it appeared that we talked easily only with Danes, Dutch and Germans…..

Most British newspapers have fed their readers for decades with tales of European bureaucracy – to the extent that its citizens seem now incapable of a serious discussion.

Few British people therefore appreciate that a vote for withdrawal would still keep them effectively bound up in the same set of regulations they profess to revile – as part of the “competition strategy” on which Britain has, ironically, led the pack….. 

About a dozen key points emerged from the Open Europe war game yesterday - 

None of the UK’s reform demands are considered easy- With nearly all of the (British) press coverage of the UK-EU negotiations focused on the demands to restrict EU migrants’ access to welfare, there is a perception that the other demands are comparatively easy. However, our negotiations suggested this is to underestimate the complexity and political sensitivity of other key issues. Reaching a UK-EU deal in February may not be as straightforward as some assume.  In Britain, the debate about whether all member states should be subject to a centralising interpretation of ‘ever closer union’ is often seen as anachronistic, symbolic and abstract.

However, the emotional commitment of others to the integrationist ideal should not be taken lightly. As former Irish Taoiseach John Bruton noted, “Small countries like Ireland see the EU as community of law and mutual solidarity…Removing the commitment to ever closer union would be like removing EU's emotional cement.”    Meanwhile, former German Deputy Finance Minister Steffen Kampeter described the idea of a ‘red card’ for national parliaments to block EU legislation as “crazy”, pleading with Britain to “please take that off the table.”
Perhaps predictably, the UK’s demand for greater EU ‘competitiveness’ was the least controversial, although even this prompted a fierce debate about why the EU was seen to overregulate – is it the fault of EU institutions such as the European Commission or that of the member states who often demand greater regulation?

Some states are ready to discuss fundamental structural reform, but others are not It is tempting to see the negotiations as a battle between the UK and a cohesive EU bloc, and as the UK is the demandeur in these negotiations, there is much truth to this. However, our simulation highlighted that other member states have very different views of how the EU should develop in the coming years. Enrico Letta, the former Prime Minister playing Italy, saw the UK’s reform drive as an opportunity to establish a ‘two-circle’ EU with different rights and responsibilities for those countries that want to integrate further and more flexibility for those such as the UK that do not. He hoped Switzerland might be tempted to join an ‘outer circle’ and that the ‘inner circle’ would make progress on wholesale reform of the Eurozone.

 But others – notably Germany, the Netherlands, and (for now) France – were for various reasons unwilling to countenance such a radical shakeup of the status quo.  

UK ideas lost in translation?  In the reform session, our continental negotiators all stressed their willingness to be helpful and make concessions to keep the UK in. However, certain topics (migration and welfare in particular) revealed how differently the British see things to their EU partners. To understand the opposition that many EU states have to any form of ‘discrimination’ between UK and EU nationals on access to welfare, you just had to witness how many around the table were shocked that the UK considers the free movement of EU citizens as ‘immigration’ at all.
However, for the British, as Sir Malcolm Rifkind said, this is a political issue where pragmatism should prevail. He noted that EU states and recent EU court rulings had established that it was perfectly possible to discriminate between your own and EU nationals when it comes to accessing out of work benefits and that Denmark had been granted special dispensation to apply restrictions on (predominantly Germans’) purchase of holiday homes on its territory.

UPDATE
Today (18 February) a full report was issued of the event and some conclusions draan


Sadly, most British viewers will dismiss the event as yet more proof of how impossible the EU is - after all all the "actors" (bar Norman Lamont and Rifkind) - were prominent fans of the EU. But the simulation was important in giving real emotional strength to European arguments we too often hear through the prism of British editorial spin....Other important points were -

 Member states hiding behind the Commission and the EU Treaty - In the game as in life, there seemed to be a significant number of member states using the European Commission as a defence mechanism and hiding behind bureaucracy to avoid some difficult political decisions. This was particularly true on the issue of EU migrants’ access to benefits where the Commission insisted no discrimination is possible, despite the UK player highlighting that law and treaties can be changed if there is the political will – it is in the end a political decision, EU law is not holy writ.  

Some states hope this renegotiation will settle the issue - During the reform session the Irish player asked, “Can we be sure that you won’t be coming back looking for more in ten years’ time?” He went on to add that he hoped the matter “would not be reopened again…we can’t live with this sort of uncertainty.”
Given the nature of the negotiations during the game and in reality, as well as the tight result expected, it seems unlikely this referendum will settle the issue.
Furthermore, as was noted by others during the session, Europe is changing and the issue of reform is not a one shot deal. Therefore, demands by other states for this to be the end of the UK’s reform push or the end of questions around the EU’s structure are likely to be sorely disappointed.  

This is going to be emotional either way - Both the reform and the Brexit sessions roused passionate exchanges. “You were our best friend, and we had a marriage. Now we are divorced,” was how former Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Björling reacted to Brexit, lamenting the loss of a liberal, free-trading ally. We lost count of the number of times that Brexit was likened to a messy divorce.  The Netherlands’ representative, former Social Affairs Minister Aart Jan de Geus, noted that while the Dutch public might expect its politicians to be rational about Brexit, the politicians are likely to be irrational and this could result in ‘sub-optimal’ outcomes for all concerned.  

There was a sense that the rancorous response of continental negotiators was not simply driven by the shock and anger of being spurned by Britain. It also revealed the vulnerability of the EU post-Brexit. The Spanish player summed up the potential impact of British withdrawal on the EU as, “A tsunami would be a very small thing compared to what would happen with a Brexit.” The German player said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch. Brexit is something which does not only affect you but affects our country.” Furthermore, some of the resentment appeared to be due to the fact that other EU member states felt they had spent time and energy trying to reach a viable deal with the UK – but that deal had then been rejected by voters.  

The afternoon session contemplated the scenario of life outside the EU - with the UK player, former Finance Minister Lord Norman Lamont,suggesting the best approach would be to seek a comprehensive free trade agreement, citing the EU deal with Canada as a good starting point since it removes almost all tariffs on goods and agriculture. However, given the links between the UK and the rest of the EU, clearly things would be more complicated. This led him to propose a ‘Canada+’ style agreement which could see such a deal extended to cross-border services, including financial services, with the UK expressing some willingness to compromise by granting EU citizens access to the UK labour market and providing some contribution to the EU budget in exchange. Ultimately, the UK will have to figure out what it wants outside the EU, but Lord Lamont’s opening pitch was a strong attempt to lay out the potential terms of a new relationship, which the Leave campaigns have been reluctant to spell out so far.  

Sending a message not to follow the example of Brexit - One of the more revealing moments of the Brexit discussion was the message that the Polish player Leszek Balcerowicz, a former Deputy Prime Minister, wanted to send to others that might seek to follow the UK’s example. “The common interest of the remaining members is to deter other exits”, he said, and added, “This should have an impact on the terms Britain gets – they should not be too generous.” Lord Lamont responded that this was a strange reaction from what was supposed to be an organisation based on the premise of mutually beneficial cooperation.  

Brexit would add to the EU’s list of crises -While some players warned that doing a post-Brexit deal with the UK would not be a top priority – perhaps as a negotiating ploy – former EU Trade Commissioner, Karel de Gucht, playing the role of the EU institutions, disagreed, saying that in reality a new trade deal with the UK would become the EU’s “top political priority.” This did not mean the UK would get an easy ride though, he warned.  

Perhaps Enrico Letta summed it up best when he said that “We are discussing as though the European Union is the centre of the world. That is no longer the case. In case of Brexit, we risk having years and years of discussions and wasting energy, time and money when the rest of the world will run without us…We have to look at the big picture – the rest of the world is not waiting for us.” For an organisation dealing with the Eurozone and refugee crises, Brexit could provide another existential threat.

In Praise of....Political Economy

Trust the Germans to spot a winner!

Some 18 months ago I bought a small book which I have carted from the Carpathians ….and back…briefly dipped into but then abandoned - from my impatience these days with economics….Its title, Austerity (2013), was hardly calculated to bring me to orgasm but its subtitle – “history of a dangerous idea” – should have told me that this was no ordinary pseudo-technical stuff. It took author Mark Blyth’s electrifying youtube performances (a more sedate performance is a recent presentation at the University of Glasgow) to bring the book back down from my shelves (metaphorically – since the book is still in the Carpathians) for more careful reading. 
What I found is a book I would rate as the best read of the new century! 

Mark Blyth is that rarity – a Scot and political scientist (but with an American post-graduate specialism in “economic ideas and political change in the 20^th century”) whose book reminds us of the Scottish tradition of political economy. Since 2009 he has been Professor of International Political Economy at the Ivy League Brown University - quite an achievement for a Dundee lad from a poor working class background who generally pays warm tribute to the support he owes to the welfare state....  

The book can be read in its entirety at Austerity – the history of a dangerous idea and you can get a good sense of the respect with which its being treated by colleagues in the special symposium Comparative European Politics ran on the book in 2013 – with this being Blyth’s powerful response

For those impatient with academic jousting, Le Monde Diplomatique ran this good summary

Blyth’s book is divided into two parts. The first is an account of the crisis, starting with the United States and moving on to Europe. Blyth’s narrative does not drown in financial jargon. He sets out to explain as simply as possible what the jargon means and what role it played in the crisis.

For those interested in understanding collateral deals in US repo markets, the structure of mortgage-backed derivatives, repo transactions, correlation and tail risk, Blyth’s book is a good place to start.

His explanation of the crisis is compelling: innovatory financial instruments were allied with a set of ideas about how the economy works, and in particular about how one should evaluate risk in the economy, which together contributed to a build-up of risks within the global financial system and their explosion in 2008. These ideas also facilitated the transfer of the crisis from the US to Europe.

Blyth dismisses the popular notion that the crisis is somehow the result of the moral failing of particular individuals — the ‘Fred Goodwin problem’. It is, for Blyth, a failure of the private sector as a whole. That it has been paid for by the public purse can only be explained by the contradictory set of ideas, which prevail today, about the dangers of state intervention. It is these ideas that Blyth calls ‘austerity’. 

The second half of the book is a great primer in political economy. Describing the intellectual origins of the idea of austerity, Blyth gives us potted accounts of the ideas of Hume, Locke, Smith and Ricardo. He ties these ideas together with political developments, presenting us with a picture of the 20th century that sees Keynesian ideas fighting it out with older ideas about austerity and government probity. A short-lived victory for Keynesian economics after the Second World War was eventually overthrown by a mixture of economic crises, public choice theories of democracy and the rational expectations revolution in economic theory.
This journey through the idea of austerity ends with a chapter on its implementation.

This is a devastating account of how attempts at putting the idea into practice — from the struggle of governments with the Gold Standard in the 1920s and 1930s to the travails of more recent ‘austerity successes’ like Sweden and Ireland — never seems to work.

But it took those canny Germans to appreciate Blyth’s genius. Given the choice last year to award a prize for the economics writing of the year which included Thomas Pikety’s highly profiled (but, I suspect, seldom read) "Capital", they chose Mark Blyth’s "Austerity" – for reasons they explain here  

"Political economy" sank out of fashion in the 1970s as the pretensions of economics to be treated as a science overwhelmed academia......Blyth's book (and chair at an Ivy league University) is yet another welcome sign of the grip of "scientific" pretensions being broken..... 

historical note

The phrase économie politique actually first appeared in France in 1615 with a book by Antoine de Montchrétien - Traité de l’economie politique - with the world's first professorship in political economy established in 1754 at the University of Naples, Vienna University following suit soon thereafter (in 1763). And it was to be Thomas Malthus who, in 1805, became England's first professor of political economy, at the East India Company College.

As it happens. I graduated (in 1964) with an MA (Hons) in ”Political Economy and Politics” from …..no less than the University of Glasgow where Adam Smith occupied a chair (in Moral Philosophy) from 1753 for more than a decade – attracting students from many parts of Europe to his lectures which increasingly focused on the causes of national wealth. He then acted as tutor on the Grand Tour (engaging then with the French physiocrats) but returned after a few years to Kircaldy to write his magnum opus “The Wealth of Nations” which appeared in 1776. 
The Glasgow course in Political Economy must be one of the longest running - it disappeared (as a name) only in the early 1990s....