“The limits of art” is the third project from the program “Generations”, presented by Art Gallery “Dechko Uzunov”. In an attempt to better understand the life and work of the famous artist, the Sofia City Art Gallery branch has presented throughout the years dedicated exhibitions to the students of Uzunov. After Kalina Taseva and Elza Goeva, another famous artist is in order -Ivan B. Ivanov. He is one of the students that graduated Dechko Uzunov’s atelier in 1959 alongside  Ivan Banav, Hristo Yavashev, Stoyan Rakanov, Dora Boneva, Svetlin Rusev and others.

Ivanov’s portfolio from the early student years till today shows his expertise in recreating the natural, but it does not attract him in the academic sense, but turns into the motivation for many compositional and color improvisations. He continuously tries to find new forms of matter and spirit. Exactly through the themes “Music”, “Circus’’ and “Abstraction” the artists manages to perfect his work. The music as an art excites and inspire him.  His knowledge, technique and skills, as well as the discipline that comes with them, allow and reveal many new things, as he states. In his willingness to study different positions, motions and states, Ivan B. Ivanov turns his attention to acrobats, clowns and magicians. All his efforts lead to the fall of the well-known form and it’s change to different geometrical compositions. In those abstractions the artist best studies the balance and he seeks harmony and chaos in the color, from which he creates one whole.

The human has always been walking the road from the natural to the symbolic, regardless of the times. This path is linked with the passing on the gained knowledge to the next generations. We can say that Ivan B. Ivanov has managed to do that after half a century of work, and he shows that there are no limits for life or art.

This Ivan B. Ivanov exhibition presents selected gouaches and aquarelles from different periods. All works are author-owner.