The torture of choice

For the past decade I haven’t been able to decide where to live – a condition the Germans call “Die Qual der Wahl”, the torture of choice.

I’ve lived in more than ten countries since I left Scotland in 1990. Since leaving Kyrgzstan in 2007 I seem to have settled down – dividing my time between Bulgaria (where I had a couple of projects); Transylvania (where I have a mountain house); and Bucharest where I have access to a very small flat. But I need a flat in a city I enjoy – with proper space for my paintings and artefacts. And time is running out!

Scotland is ruled out for its weather; I tried the French (or rather Brittany) rural market briefly (in 2010) but realised that, much as I love the French language and culture, I did not need another rural place. I then considered, for their cultural treasures, Brussels and Vienna - but they are too pricey. At the moment I find Sofia the best location (I currently rent a place there); but have, for the past month, been in Koln – receiving medical treatment which is scheduled to finish in mid-July. Occassionally I have wondered about Germany as a place to retire to...

Much as I appreciate German culture and society, my experience so far would not suggest this as an option. It is simply too expensive (although I notice that property in many parts of Germany can still be bought at reasonable prices); the shopping experiences are too bland; and the Rheinland anyway far too cold and damp. I miss my Balkan vegetables and warmth! Little wonder that so many sunbed and physiotherapy services are on offer here!

Of course I am impressed with the neatness of residential areas (so much "touching up" going on); the profusion of greenery; the politeness; the cycling; the regularity and cleanliness of public transport; and the sheer number of old people who use it. But I resent the charges the museums and galleries make – 10 euros, for example, to access Koln’s permanent exhibition of the Expressionists. So my only taste of culture so far has been the great Kathe Kollwitz museum at Neumarkt. It was 1964 when I first came across Kollwitz (1867-1945) - and Georg Grosz - when I lived for a short time in Berlin. Both were a great inspiration for the Bulgarian graphic artists of the first half of the century - the piece which fronts this post is one of the series she did on the Peasants' Revolt.

The Wine festival which has been occupying Neumarkt for the past 2 weeks is, quite frankly, pathetic – with 2.50 euros being charged for 0.15 millitre glasses. What a contrast with the 10 euros 2-day ticket I bought for the Sofia wine-tasting in October when I could fill my face!
The german property market is supposed to be more sensible than (say) the British - but I was still disappointed to find that the cheapest flats I could rent here are 60 euros a night (although that does reflect reasonably the higher cost of living compared, for example, with Sofia where I pay one eighth of that; such proportionality is not the case for food!) .
And internet connections seem to be very slow - one of several reasons why I have not been posting recently.

Do paintings speak for themselves?

On what was supposed to be the last evening in Sofia, a burst of purchases – this time from my friend Ruhmen's small Neron Gallery on the corner of Tsar Samuel and Neofin Rilski streets-

• two Petar Boiadjiev seascapes; 
• two more Kolyo Kolev Rhodope landscapes from the early 1940s; 
• and a dramatic Cyril Mateev showing the towering Rila massif. 

This on top of a couple more Naidenovs and a Kolyo Kolev a week earlier.

The painting at the top is the first Petar Boiadjiev I ever bought and one of my favourites - a 1943 one of the  Kaliakra cliffs just north of Balcik which was such an attraction for Romanian painters in the early part of the 20th century.
I'm told that Boiadjiev (1907-1963) studied art in Bucharest. That (and the birth and death dates) are the only things I know about him. His seascapes (for me) rival those of Boris Stefchev.

Kolyo Koev (1905-50) is another one of many Bulgarian painters I wish I knew more about – his Rhodope landscapes from the 1940s have a very distinctive colourful impressionist style – with the oil paint thickly applied.
All I know about him is that he committed suicide in 1950 at the age of 45.




Kiril Mateev (1920-2006) was a prolific painter - particularly of dramatic mountain scenes like this one.

Interesting that information about so many of my favourites is so difficult to get hold of!
I occasionally get the gallerists to consult their "bible" (the old artistic encyclopaedia of Bulgaria  painters many of them have) but (for names such as these) even this rarely reveals much.
A previous post regretted the lack of information about the life of Grigor Naidenov many of whose Sofia cafe scenes in the decades from the 1920s now adorn my walls.
But does info about the training, travels, travails and friends of painters really add much to one's understanding of a painter? The portrait of Naidenov I included in that particular post is certainly a bonus.....
I've met some of the contemporary Bulgarian painters but don't really know much about them. Somehow, however, the times in which the older painters lived holds greater fascination. I want to know how they dealt with the various dilemmas they were faced with - not least the violent communist takeover of 1944.

Aquarelles

Sofia’s City Gallery has a nice exhibition of aquarelles drawn from its archives which give a good sense of this particular genre as practised by Bulgarians in the past century. It starts with 3 majestic paintings from one Joseph Oberbauer (1853-1926); then 2 typical military scenes by Jaroslav Veshin from 1902 and 1905; before a magnificent large picture of a schooner in rough sea (1928) by Alexander Moutafov; and typical aquarelles by Shturkelov, Frantsaliyski and Jordan Geshev. I was glad to see a Naidenov - but the stars were for me the blue-skyed Plovdiv scene by Titrinov and this 1950 Vladimir Manski - "Parade at the National Theatre".

The viewing was made all the more enjoyable by the company and insights of the exhibition’s curator Svetla Georgieva, a painter and musician in her own right.  

By coincidence, I had bought an aquarelle the previous day - unusually for me. And a large one at that. It has the same feel to it as the Manski and is by a young contemporary - Andrean Vekiarov.

And I am reminded that I failed a few months back to pay tribute to the Sofia City Gallery for its great exhibition celebrating its 60th Anniversary.
The accompanying book - A Possible History - Bulgarian Art through the collection of Sofia City Art Gallery - is one of the best in its series. 

First real day of spring

At last a pleasant day – with Mount Vitosha sharply edged in blue; white clouds scudding across its face; and people at last enjoying their coffees at the pavement cafes. 

Diana Staykov’s “Absinthe” gallery is a welcome new addition to the galleries which can be found on Tzar Samuil (it’s at no 37). She focuses on aquarelles and set the tone by pouring us a glass of one of the most stunning Sauvignon Blancs I’ve ever tasted. 

It was actually a 2010 New Zealand Marlborough but made by a young Bulgarian Alex Velianov who now markets the wines under the brand Two Friends and brings the wines back to Bulgaria on his visits.

I was also taken with the work of Atanas Matsoureff in a book lying in the gallery. His website is even more interesting for its examples of  his drawings, aquarelles and paintings. Some of the portraits - such as this one - remind me of the famous Andrew Wyeth! I realised, I had already seen some of his drawings at Byliana’s A and B Gallery.

But it was the 20 cm bronze sculpture of Marianna Kusheva which really took my fancy and now has pride of place in our small Sofia attic flat.

wine and sculpture

 Thanks to CasaVino, an eminently quaffable new red wine variety for these cold days – from a village in the Melnik area near the border with Greece. It’s Kapatovo with a blend of four grapes, three of which I had never heard of - Marselan, Petit Verdot, Primitovo and Syrah. The first two are apparently late-flowering varieties from France and only Syrah is well-known. The result is superb - well warranting the four stars which it gets from my little Bulgarian wine bible and certainly worth the 18 euros price-tag (for 5 litres!!).

The Melnik/Sandanski area is renowned for its robust and tasty Mavrud wines to which I have become very attached this winter – breaking out of the exclusive attachment I was beginning to form to the Bulgarian whites – particularly the St Ilyia from the Sliven area.
The Mavruds (including some whites) are also found in the central plains.

My favourite little second-hand bookshop in the courtyard of Vassil Levsky at the University corner also came up a couple of nice old books – one published in 1960 on the sculptor Marko Markov (many of whose works were to be seen in the Ilyia Beshkov Gallery at Pleven) and the other one a 1974 collections of small (mainly black and white) prints of artists from the first 6 decades of the 20^th century.

Unfortunately I don't know which sculptures are whose!! Are they all Markov's?? Or are some Spasskov's? The bearded guy is certainly Patriarch Eftim!

My interest in such sculptures increases in leaps and bounds. I don't, at the moment, have many such artefacts - but could be persuaded to collect more of these......

Stoian Venev

Various reasons for the 3 week silence – the numbing cold of the last few weeks; waiting for the results of various tests relating to my prostate; and sheer disgust with how the power-elites have been betraying the hopes of decent people.
The Mouse that roared is a good post on the Cyprus crisis.
Now the possibility has been raised of removing the 100k guarantee which was previously in place for our bank savings. All I can do is collect the ammunition to use on the bankers!

It's apt that I came across a small 1950s book on Stoian Venev (1904-1989) whose sepia sketches are so evocative  

Venev grew up in Kuystendil - half-way between Sofia and the Macedonian border - and was clearly influenced by Vladimir Dmitrova (Maistora) whom he knew well

He is one of a long line of first-class Bulgarian graphic artists (Bozhinov; Dobrinov; Beshkov, Behar;Angeloushev - let alone the war sketches of so many others such as Shturkelov) but his work shows a particular sympathy for the struggles of peasants.  

And I particularly liked the study of the long-suffering wife in this sketch!

Pleven Gallery at last

On Thursday, I eventually made it to the Ilyia Beshkov Gallery in Pleven. The  gallery was easily found – in an imposing building and quiet imposing area. It was midday when I got there – I was the only visitor and it was quite freezing! So cold that the 3 curators shut themselves in the small room and left me to my own devices for almost an hour – with the lighting on and my able to photograph to my heart’s content. About 50 of Beshkov’s large sketches; half a dozen large sculptures some of which were Angel Spassov but most (I now realise) were Marko Markov's!; a Mkrkchvika, Mitov, Tsonev, Boris Denev, and Stefan Ivanov

I think the seated lady is a Kiril Tsonev - unfortunately I got a bit confused in my scribbling on the catalogue - which turned out to show the work of Hristo Boyadjiev (1912-2001)

I am also confused about this one below - is it Stefan Ivanov?

No doubt about this one - it's Boris Denev!

Iceland as Inspiration

Iceland is a small country (300,000 people) in the Scandinavian zone of influence whose citizens gave an example of democratic wisdom and power in 2008 when its financial and political elites were exposed as the shysters they were. Unlike the craven people of other countries, its citizens refused to accept the claptrap of the international community. Instead they held a referendum to deny its government the authority to make billions of payments to British banks. They not only sacked the Prime Minister who presided over the financial madness of the previous decade during which Icelandic banks had offered international investors enticing financial products. They also had him prosecuted – and also some of the senior bankers behind the Ponzi schemes. They have fared better as a result than many thought – although it is not true they are free from the sort of social and economic problems being experienced by countries(like the UK) which have swallowed the new austerity.

Having said all that, I fail to understand why they are being held up as offering a new model for those sick of the corrupt and spineless political classes in so many European countries. Sure they have used an open and technically sophisticated process to produce a new Constitution which they have been needing for some time - since they are still operating with one from 1944 (amended 7 times).This I have now read in detail – it seems to me a progressive one but could hardly be argued to be radical or relevant to Bulgarian, Greek or Italian protestors. 

OK the new Icelandic Constitution (still to be approved by its Parliament) does allow for up to 10% of the country’s Parliament to be selected from a separate list of independents - and gives (as many other constitutions do) the power to citizens to draft legislation for parliament to consider. But this is hardly revolutionary!

There is a general sickness with political parties and a ready inclination to support independent mavericks which apparently extends even to Austria where an 80 year-old billionaire has set up his own party(“Team Stronach”) already attracting support

Austria will elect a new National Council, the lower house of parliament, this summer. In addition to reforming the euro zone, the cornerstones of Stronach's platform will include: reducing the number of government officials and stimulating the economy; limiting representatives from his party to no more than two legislative terms; refusing to be part of a coalition; sending randomly selected citizens to the parliament; and promoting healthy nutrition and more exercise facilities for young Austrians.

This reflects a growing feeling that ordinary, independent people need an opportunity to show how they can better represent the public interest than those selected by political parties. After all, the first loyalty of such party hacks is to those parties - most of whose leaders are scared of offending global corporate interests. I understanding they have developed one of the strongest Freedom of Information and protection of journalists Laws - and this seems to me a crucial element which is forgotten about in most of the current debate.

The question is Do more independents make a difference in a council or parliament?

My father was someone who thought so – and served successfully for many years as an independent on the same Scottish municipal council on which I too served  some years later (as a party representative). We don’t actually have a lot of experience of “Parties of Independents”. The recent Pirate Parties which have penetrated German and other Parliaments are presumably one example – but too recent to draw any conclusions from.



The German Greens are perhaps the best (and longest-serving) example of a group of individuals who, even if they had an agenda (and were therefore hardly independent), were aware of the dangers of being coopted by interests in Parliament and therefore devised various mechanisms to try to retain their purity (including shared leadership). This is what I hope to explore in the next post.

In the meantime, I have uploaded most of my collection of Grigor Naidenov aquarelles and oils. Some of them are from the 1920s - most from the 1940s and 1950s. Sadly I have so far been unable to find out anything about his life - just this tantalising self-portrait.