The jubilee exhibition ‘90 Years Since the Birth of Rumen Skorchev’ opens at the Academia Gallery
A monograph, ‘The Visual Language of Rumen Skorchev’, authored by Suzana Nikolova, has been published to accompany the ‘90 Years Since the Birth of Rumen Skorchev’ jubilee exhibition, which opens on 20 September at the Academia Gallery of the National Academy of Arts. The ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund contributed significantly to the realisation of the publication.
STOVI 1 EOOD and the National Academy of Arts (NAA’s 2022 Scientific and Artistic Activities Programme) were the other benefactors.
The exhibition presents paintings, graphics, illustrations, and drawings covering the artist’s entire creative career—which is indeed remarkable!
Rumen Skorchev was born on 7 October 1932 in Targovishte. In 1964, he graduated in Illustration from the Academy of Arts, under Profs. Petar Chuhovski and Veselin Staykov. Ever since the early 1970s, he took part in all the General Art Exhibitions at home, as well as in international biennales in Florence, Kraków, Biella, among others. In 1977, he became+ the head of an atelier specialising in illustration and book layout at the Academy of Arts. As of 2009, he was an Acting Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Rumen Skorchev illustrated over 200 books based on literary works by Pushkin, Yavorov, Lorca, Omar Khayyám, Petrarch, and Baudelaire. Several generations of children have grown up with his illustrations to the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Karel Čapek, and Asen Raztsvetnikov.
His most significant achievements in this genre are represented in the exhibition, whose curator, Suzana Nikolova, is also the author of the monograph.
The exposition includes ‘The Luncheon on the Grass’ cycle of paintings; illustrations to ‘The Rubáiyát’ by Omar Khayyám; ‘Fairy Tales’ by the Brothers Grimm; and a catalogue of Rumen Skorchev’s poetry and drawings.
Academician Rumen Skorchev has been honoured with over 40 international and national awards. His works are owned by the National Gallery of Arts, Sofia; Sofia City Art Gallery; the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (Italy); the Albertina Gallery, Vienna (Austria); the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (United Kingdom); the National Gallery, Washington (USA); the National Library of France, Paris; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles).
The artist died on 6 September 2015, in Sofia.