Biography
SPARTAK P A S K A L E V S K I, Professor, Doctor of Arts, studies at the Academy of Arts in Sofia, thereafter specialises in Budapest, Moscow, Prague, Leipzig, and Milan. His creative work is in the area of graphics, illustration, painting, ceramics, and sculpture. Participates in numerous exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad. Winner of national and international awards for creative inventions.
Promovated in 1996, habilitated in 1997, earns the Doctor of Arts degree in 2010. Teaches art history, conducts lectures and specialist courses at universities and scholarly communities in Bulgaria and other countries (Italy, Greece, and Germany). Founds (1999) and leads the Laboratory for Semiotics and Iconography.
P u b l i s h e s extensively in the fields of theory, philosophy and history of art and culture, the interdisciplinary aspects of art synthesis. Together with Rumjana Zlatanova, is the co-founder and co-publisher of the series Dialogue and Spirituality (2006-).
A u t h o r of monographs and co-author of books and collections:
Die Vita des Heiligen Methodius. München, 2006.
Projections of the Sacred in the Art of Balkan Painters during the 1920s-1940s. Sofia, 2008.
Worte, Bilder, Tone. Paradoxa und Sarkasmen (with Karsten Mekelburg, Frauke Mekelburg). Sofia, 2009.
Triptychon Mystisches Fest. Hl. Benedikt und die hll. Kyrill und Method in Himmerod. Sofia, 2010.
Auf Terpsichores Schwingen. Die Ballerina Emilia Andonova (with Rumjana Zlatanova). Sofia, 2011.
A Day for Resurrection. Sofia, 2012.
Sound Worlds. The Conductor Yordan Kamdzhalov (with Rumjana Zlatanova). München, Berlin, Washington/D.C., 2014.
El Greco – The Insights of the Spirit. Sofia, 2019.
P a r t i c i p a t i o n s in g r a p h i c b i e n n a l e s:
Varna (1938–1989), Berlin (1987), Barcelona (1993), Paris (1993), Maastricht (1993), Kanagawa (1995, 1997), Krakow (1995, 1997, 1999), and others.
P a r t i c i p a t i o n s in g r a p h i c t r i e n n i a l s:
Krakow (1999), Kanagawa (1999), Cairo (2000) and others.
During s p e c i a l i s a t i o n (lithography and graphic techniques) in 1967 in Budapest, he receives new impulses in his individual development from Prof. Makris Agamemnon. The interaction with Prof. Veselin Staikov (an alumnus of the Academy of Florence) stimulates the artist to seek his individual graphic expression.
Through participation in the archaeological excavations of Prof. Henrietta Todorova in 1968, the future artist discovers the ancient wisdom contained in the artefacts of prehistoric art.
Specialises in Moscow in 1970, where he has the opportunity to interact directly with originals of Durer and Rembrandt in the graphic cabinet of the Pushkin Museum, in the restoration studios of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Hermitage, and to expand his knowledge in the sphere of graphics, the technology of the paining systems of Classicism, Baroque, and the experimental artistic practice of the 20th century. At the same time, he ventures into the stylistic problematic of medieval art and undertakes a study of the interpretational peculiarities of the Old Russian decorative and lacquer miniature artistic practice.
Since 1971 is a regular participant in national artistic exhibitions, as well as in representative exhibitions of Bulgarian art abroad: Europe, the USA, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, India, Japan, Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba, Peru, China, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus. His individual presentations in Devnia (1972), Vratsa (1973), Magdeburg (1974), Berlin (1974, 1975) mark steps in the formation of his individual style. Receives invitation to participate in a representative exposition of Bulgarian graphics in Latin America (Mexico, Uruguay, Cuba).
The series „German Cycle” of 1982 (dedicated to Goethe and the music of Bach and Handel) includes engravings on metal, interpreting the author’s view of the light phenomenon and the specific approach to the dynamics of graphic matter. The graphic sheets „Conversations with Brecht”, dedicated to an ironic metaphoric world, foreground a realisation of another creative aspect of the expressive possibilities of the intaglio printing. The engraving on metal becomes the artist’s preferred artistic technique. Through the white strokes, the categorically dominating light phenomenon, brought forward with an economy of graphic means, lends a poetic quality and a philosophical depth to the expression. The juxtaposition of the negative and the positive within the entire dynamic fabric of his works of the 1983-1987 period represents a new interpretational device in the artist’s creative work. In certain zones, the line transforms itself into a light stream, in others – in an expressive contour which emphasises the dynamic form.
The painting cycles „The Last Day of Archimedes”, „Mythical Festivities”, „A Sand Clock”, „Psalm”, and „Man and Machine” are exhibited in 1985 in Rakovski 125 Art Gallery in Sofia. The artist moulds the exhibition space through the plastic-symbolic coordinates of his works and grants it sound with an authorial musical serial composition. The invitation to the exhibition contains the musical graphics which constitute the score to the painting triptych „The Last Day of Archimedes”. During subsequent presentations in Moscow, Bukhara, and Tashkent the artist re-discovers the plastic fascination of Eastern art and the work of Andrei Rublev, to whom he dedicates a graphic cycle.
A new field for experimental work opens up in 1986 and 1987, during the artist’s stint at the aluminium factory in Shumen, with the subsequent cycle „Transformations ‘A’”.
Continues his theoretical studies on the genesis of space and the historical morphology of the drawing, on which subjects he presents papers at various scholarly forums.
The paper „On Space in the Work of David Alfaro Siqueiros” is presented at the International Conference on Latin American Culture and Art held in Sofia (1986). „Graphic Matter in 20th Century Art” and „On the Language of Graphics in the Work of Greek Graphic Artist Alevizos Tassos” are presented at a round table during the „International Congress of Balkan Studies” (1989). „Spinoza and Rembrandt in the Light of the Ethical Aspects of ‘Spherical Space’” is the artist’s contribution to the Bulgarian-Holland Scientific Forum in 1994. These contributions are preceded by a series of preliminary investigations on „The Typology of Space Constructions in Fine Art” (1981), „The Genesis of Drawing” (1983), „Phenomenology of Graphic Matter” (1987), and others.
After intense involvement with the problems of Byzantine aesthetics and the realisation of the painting cycle „Preslav”, the author exhibits a consistent tendency to combine theory and practice in their organic indivisibleness. In this way, as a theoretician he articulates his views in various international forums:
„The Problems of Composition in Bulgarian Graphics in the 1960s-1970s” (1982), „Time in the Work of Siqueiros” (1985), „Aesthetic Problems of the Production Environment” (1987), „Rembrandt and Spinoza” (1997). At the conferences (1992, 1994, 1996), which take place on the initiative of the Nuncio in Sofia, Mario Rizzi, and the University of Sofia St. Kliment Ohridski, the artist attracts interest with his standpoints contained in his innovative papers „Iconography and Typology of St. Christopher in the Context of the Dialogue between East and West” (1992), „Towards the Genesis of the Pre-Renaissance Spatial Model” (1994), „Italian Models in Bulgarian Art” (1996). With the support of the Earth and Man National Museum, Paskalevski becomes an initiator and leader of the PHOS SOCIETY, founded in 1990. For intellectuals and artist with a broad spectrum of views, the society’s halls with their exposition of crystals become a constant discussion forum for non-traditional meetings and creative events.
A new stage in the development of the artist is marked by his presentation of the s y n e r g y (an authorial version of the performance and the installation), formulated as a form of „neosyncretism”, to the artistic community. Since 1991, the author binds this sound-image experiment (with roots in ancient ritual practice) conceptually as a unity of painting, music and dance. Following the synergy „Light Signs”, brought into being in collaboration with the musical collective of percussion instruments „Polyrhythmics” at Shipka 6 Gallery (1990), is the synergy „The Resurrection of Lazarus” for voice, violoncello, mandolin, piano and oboe, presented at the University of Sofia (1991).
After numerous participations in biennales, the international panel of judges for the Krakow triennial (1999) includes him in a representative graphic exposition. New aspects in the sphere of drawing and composition for the period 1994–1999 emerge with the cycle „The Kiss of Judas” (Warsaw 1997) and the form „Iconograms” (musical variations, dedicated to Pancho Vladigerov, water-colours, and collages) of 1998. The synergic event „Inspirito” (phonic drawing, accompanied by music and recital) resurrects primary foundations of the ritualistic creative act – „Premio Gamajun”, 1999.
His LABORATORY FOR SEMIOTICS AND ICONOGRAPHY investigates and reconstructs the Preslav Icon of the 10th century on the eve of the Christian second millennium (2000).
Experiments are an inseparable part of the artist’s exploratory work in his study of the syncretistic structures of form-formation. In his ceramic cycle „Drop”, presented at the experimental exhibition by the same name in 2000 (Shipka 6 Gallery), what dominates is the plastic idea of the phenomenon of the primary, i.e., that in its pre-beginning the universe has the form of a … water drop. In the cosmological vision of the artist, this is the form before the instant when the drop tears itself apart and in its flight downwards metaphorically connects heaven and earth. At this instant, as he elaborates, the drop has carried within itself the embryo of an angel.
His painting cycle, „Palimpsest”, presented in Seasons Gallery (2001), is dedicated to the animated vibrating latency. This idea finds continuation in the chromatic „sounds” of the unsaid and the unheard in the impulsive drawing improvisation, in the cycle „Polyphonies” (Town Gallery Oftersheim, Germany, 2004).
The cooperating synchrony of image and sign in the spatial being of the book, defined by the author as i c o n o g r a m, unfolds in different spatial coordinates. The visible phonism is present also in the quasi-canonical compositional structures of the juxtaposing of figurativeness and mosaics in the cycle „The Life of St. Methodius” (in Palais Adelmann, Ellwangen; Haus Wittgenstein, Vienna, 2004) and in „The Gospel of John” (Heidelberg, 2005).
On the initiative of STUDIO 129, founded by Paskalevski in 2004 for experiments in art, the artistic project „9+1” takes shape, which represents a collective exposition of painting, graphics and installations of nine artists from Baden-Wurttemberg and their Bulgarian colleague within the framework of the Salon of Arts in the National Palace of Culture, Sofia (2005).The project receives the Special Prize of the National Palace of Culture (2005) „for original and highly professional plastic representation of contemporary reality, characterised by individual sensitivity and a variety of expressive means”.
In the polyptych-installation „Songs of Orpheus”, 960 x 100 cm (Sofia, 2005), the idea of the cosmic string determines the logic of the entire composition through the proportions of the numerical series 1-2-3-4. Alongside the figurative-motif, numerical and colour symbolism, carriers of the energy fields are the three spectrum colours: blue – the energy of life; yellow – the energy of the soul; red – the energy of the corporeal, of the earthly, represented as three colour streams, projecting music as celestial (cosmic) and earthly (vital) energy.
The cycle „Sanctified Encounters” comprises three installations and five artistic books-objects as peculiar sculptural forms (Berlin, 2006). These books-iconograms come close to the tradition of the manually made book with drawings. The constituting module is the day, chosen by the author as a primary mythical temporal topos. „Pentameron” 25x32 cm is defined by the symbolism of the five elements – fire, air, water, earth, tree; „Hexameron” 25x32 cm is dedicated to the Creation of the world in six days (light, heaven, stars, flora, fauna, man), „Heptameron” 25x32 cm is temporally connected to the days of the Passion Week, „Dodecameron” 22x20 cm represents events of the Christian annual holiday cycle.
After the surreal series of collages, „The Jokes of Karsten” (Heidelberg, 2006) comes the painting series „Go, oh You, and See!” (Gabrovo, 2006). The latter reveals the synergism in the intellectual game of ironies and optophonic drawings and musical graphics. The mystic space is embodied in the compositional inventions of the series „In Memory of El Greco” (Pyrgos, 2007), in the ensemble construction of the four triptychs „12 Glances at St. Mary” (Himmerod, 2010), in the chromatic expression „On the Way to Heaven” (Passau, 2010). The author arrives at the conception of s y n c r e s t a s i s as a new form of expositional expression in the cycle „To Enter the Studio” (Sofia, 2011) and „Optophonochromes” (Kongresshaus, Heidelberg, 2014). Following this trend is „RU” („Re-formа universalis”, Mannheim, 2015), which resembles, in idea and structure, the programmatic conception of „The Art of the Fugue” by Johann Sebastian Bach. The form-generating aspects of the type „hidden abstraction” becomes a topical concern of the discussions of the creative intellectual cycle „Ellipsis” in Mannheim, on the initiative of STUDIO 129. Attention focuses on the problems of the synthesis binding spatial and temporal aspects of geometry and typology, of symbiosis and synergy. A prospective new form of phonism and spatial construction is the presentation of „Synergon” with the participation of musical inventions by Yordan Kamdzhalov in Kvadrat [Square] 500 Gallery (Sofia, 2016).
The transformation of the concrete exhibition space into an associative metaphoric net can be seen in the series „A? Is a Fable” in the Raphael Mikhail Exhibition Halls (Veliko Tirnovo, 2017), followed by the painting cycle „When ...” in Elena Karamikhilova Gallery (Shumen, 2017), „The Memory of Words” (painting, National Library, Sofia, 2018), „The Cart of the Village of Mogila” (painting, Elena Karamikhilova Gallery, Shumen, 2019). The series of kiklochromes, „Metamorphoses I” (Humans and Animals) in the „Raphael Mikhailov Exhibition Halls“ (Veliko Tirnovo, 2020) marks a turn towards a rejection of traditional and routine inclinations of audience perception.
A testimony of scholars’ interest in the work of Paskalevski is a paper by Professor Riccardo Buttafava in Arte Cristiana (No. 806, Milano, 2001) which focuses on synergy as a form of sound-sign moulding of space. The sound phenomenon, which is organically intrinsic to the artistic form, retains memory and develops the original indivisibility of the „primary” creative act. In the invisible neo-syncretism, the creative artistic act brings to mind the indivisible wholeness of the word-dance and magic ritual gesture of the drawing. In this way, the drawing becomes thought, the colour – sound, while the colour organisation – a ritual act, in which the idea and the presentiment coalesce in the vital oneness of the concrete form. The mutual transformations in art are its essence and invisible secret, which the artist transforms into visibility, as acknowledged aphoristically by Buttafava in „A Day for Resurrection” (p. 86):
Spartak does not draw: he weaves.
Spartak does not colour: he illuminates.
Spartak does not recount: he represents.
[Spartak non disegna: ricama.
Spartak non colora: illumina.
Spartak non racconta: rappresenta.]
Professor Wolfgang Gesemann observes that, side by side with his input in the area of theory, in the creative inventions of Paskalevski „we witness the spiritual realisation of the artistic conception, directed towards the eternal, the infinite and the absolute. This conception is actualised ... through the individual symbolic transformation on the will of the artist.” („A Day for Resurrection”, 2012, p. 90). [„es geht… um den geistigen Vollzug des künstlerischen Anliegens, das auf das Ewige, Unendliche und Absolute verweist. Dieses Anliegen kann…verwirklicht werden… in individuell symbolischer Transformation nach dem Willen des Künstlers“ (Tag der Auferstehung 2012: 88).]
Dr Horst Röhling makes the observation that, in dialogue „with the way of thinking exhibited in the development of European art as a whole”, Paskalevski brings this dialogue „to the outcome of a deep revelation ... of an European conscience, which can be achieved through a spiritual unification” („A Day for Resurrection”, 2012, p. 94). [„Der Verfasser bringt… in ein im Dialog mit der Gesamtheit europäischer Kunst fortgesetztes Denken und führt es zu Ergebnissen tiefer Einsicht, die… einem zu bildenden europäischen Bewusstsein durch spirituelle Einheit“ dient (Tag der Auferstehung 2012: 94)].
In connection with analysis of the visions and ideas of the artist and theoretician Paskalevski, of interest is the observation of the philosopher, Professor Krasimir Delchev of the University of Sofia, that „Paskalevski … presents not only the aspects of the study of art, but also their thought space as a philosophy of art.” („A Day for Resurrection”, 2012, pp. 98-102).
Professor Rumjana Zlatanova, on her part, metaphorically compares „the visibility of his presence” with „that discernible part of a lonesome and to a certain extent enigmatic island, which we recognise with ease in the distant horizon, without being able to actually conceive of the depth of the part submerged into the sea. Not only he, but we too, are moving ever closer to it in anticipation of the fullness and completeness that await us.” („Triptych A Mystical Festivity”, 2010, p. 17). [„die Sichtbarkeit seiner Präsenz… mit jenem sichtbaren Teil einer einsamen und in gewissem Sinne rätselhaften Insel, die sich im fernen Horizont mit Leichtigkeit erblicken lässt, ohne dass wir uns die Tiefe des sich im Meer befindlichen Teils in der Tat vorstellen können. Nicht nur er, sondern auch wir befinden uns auf dem Weg unserer Annäherung an ihn im Vorgefühl von der uns erwartenden Fülle und Vollständigkeit“ (Triptychon Mystisches Fest 2010: 11)].
In the interview „The Visible Invisibility of the Abstract”, published in the Catalogue „9+1”, the artist shares his view that „when the artist is authentic in his dialogue with the enigmatic nature of the world, he achieves this fullness, which Heidegger defines as „the truth of being and the meaning of art”. What appeals to him most is “the energy of the hidden forces, which need to be given visibility”, as well as the image, which „conceals” and at the same time „reveals” art as a world (p. 110). For the artist, „the human figure is the main key to the universal and the boundless in the world, because it carries the great potential of hidden abstractness, which manifests itself in a diverse, multifaceted and inexhaustible way. In the dynamic structures of space and time it codes the metamorphoses of the invisible and brings them out in the visible layer of discernible plasticity” („9+1”, p. 110).
Critics define his art as belonging to the aesthetics of pluralism (with elements of the Modern) and experimentalism (in the artistic practice of the Postmodern). In his many series, the artist moulds the exhibition space with transformations of visual phenomena and metamorphoses of expressive and anamorphic phonic motifs, whose synergic logos functions in the concrete spatial structures of s y n e r g o n , s y n c r e s t a s i s and k i k l o c h r o m y.
S o l o E x h i b i t i o n s:
1972 „Sun Clock”, „Layers” – painting and graphics (Devnia, Bulgaria)
1973 „The Day of Anger” – painting and graphics (Vratsa, Bulgaria)
1974 „Man and Machine” – graphics (Magdeburg; Berlin)
1982 „German Cycle” – graphics (Sofia)
1983 „Words and Images” – painting and graphics (Stara Zagora, Bulgaria)
1985 „Sand Clock”, „Psalm”, „The Last Day of Archimedes”, „Man and Machine” – painting and drawings (Sofia)
1987 „Transformations ‘A’” – painting, graphics on aluminium (Shumen, Bulgaria)
1988 „Golden Voices” – painting and graphics (Preslav, Bulgaria)
1990 „Light Signs” – painting, synergy for marimba, vibraphone and xylophone by ensemble „Polyrhythmics” (Shipka 6 Gallery, Sofia)
1990 „Books of the Unuttered” – mixed technique (National Museum of Earth and Man, Sofia)
1991 „The Resurrection of Lazarus” – painting, synergy for voice, mandolin, violoncello, oboe, and piano (University of Sofia)
1992 „The Prodigal Son” – painting, graphics (Sofia)
1993 Series „In Memory of Jean Antoine Watteau” – painting (Paris)
1994 Series „The Festivities of Jean Antoine Watteau” – painting (Paris)
1995 „Poems by Kostis Palamas” – water-colours and drawings (National Library, Sofia)
1996 „Awaken Fountains” – painting and drawings (Gemona, Italy)
1997 „The Kiss of Judas” – drawings (Warsaw)
1998 „Moonlight” – drawings after the poems of Giacomo Leopardi (Gemona, Italy)
1999 „Voci dalla pietra”. Realizzazione editoriale composta da 7 poesie con 7 incisioni corrispondenti ‒ ophorts (Gemona, Italy)
1999 „Inspirito” – synergy (phonic drawing, musicalisation, recital). „Premio Gamajun” (Gemona, Italy)
2000 „The Drop” – ceramics, painting and sculpture; synergy of violin, oboe, flute (Shipka 6 Gallery, Sofia)
2001 „The Serdar” – graphic cycle dedicated to Grigor Parlichev (Ohrid, North Macedonia)
2001 „Palimpsest” – painting (Seasons Gallery, Sofia)
2002 „Iconograms – Musical Variations”, dedicated to Pancho Vladigerov – collages and graphics (Heidelberg, Germany)
2003 „On Silver Wings i Shall Fly” (R. M. Rilke) – painting (Mannheim, Germany)
2004 „Polyphonies” – drawings, water-colours, mixed technique (Oftersheim, Germany)
2004 „The Life of St. Methodius” – iconograms, painting and graphics (Ellwangen; Vienna)
2005 „Songs of Orpheus” – polyptych (installation), painting (National Palace of Culture, Sofia)
2006 „The Gospel of St. John” – painting (Providenz-Kirche, Heidelberg)
2006 „Sanctified Encounters” – syncrestasis, painting and books-objects (Berlin; Munich)
2006 Series „Go, Oh You, and See!” – painting (The House of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria)
2006 Series „Chants of Memory” – water-colours (Town Gallery, Dupnitsa, Bulgaria)
2006 „In the Footsteps of Time” – multidimensional multimedia project with interior and exterior spatial constructions (Town Gallery, Dupnitsa, Bulgaria)
2007 „Good Evening, Mozart!” – painting (Sofia)
2007 „In Memory of El Greco” – painting (Pyrgos, Greece)
2008 „Mystical Festivity” – altar triptych, painting (the Cathedral, Himmerod, Germany)
2009 „On the Way to Paradise” – optophones and painting (Kultur-Forum, Passau, Germany)
2009 Series „The Jokes of Karsten” – optophones, collages and drawings (Heidelberg, Germany)
2010 „The Seed of the Wave” – painting (Passau, Germany)
2010 „12 Glimpses at Blessed Virgin” – painting (installation) (Himmerod, Germany)
2011 „Three Alphabets – One Dialogue” – synergon and graphic cycle in honour of the 625th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany)
2011 „Forward, Backwards, Left, Right” – painting (Town Gallery, Dupnitsa, Bulgaria)
2011 „To Enter the Studio” – syncrestasis, painting and graphics (Shipka 6 Gallery, Sofia)
2011 „To Touch the Words (Orhan Pamuk)” – optophones, painting, drawings (Red House Gallery, Sofia)
2012 „Lines form the Speech of Paisius” – water-colours (Elena Karamikhailova Gallery, Shumen, Bulgaria)
2012 „A Day for Resurrection” – painting (Elena Karamikhailova Gallery, Shumen, Bulgaria)
2013 Series „Hans Egon Wöhrlen” ‒ painting (Passau, Germany)
2013 Series „The Spirit of the Earth” – painting and syncrestasis (Town Gallery, Kumanovo, North Macedonia)
2014 Series „Scores of the Heart” – painting (Oftersheim Gallery, Germany)
2014 „Optophonochromes” – syncrestasis, painting (Kongresshaus, Heidelberg, Germany)
2014 „Ideophones, Visions and Wakes” – painting (Town Gallery, Kumanovо, North Macedonia)
2015 „Echoes from Ancient Rituals” – painting (Thessaloniki, Greece)
2015 „Word-forms” – painting (Ioannina, Greece)
2016 „RU” („Re-formа universalis”) – painting, drawings („Forum-Ellipsis”, Mannheim)
2016 „Celestial Voices” – synergon, painting and musical inventions by Yordan Kamdzhalov (Kvadrat [Square] 500 Gallery, Sofia)
2017 „A? Is a Fable” – painting (Raphael Mikhailov Exhibition Halls, Veliko Tirnovo, Bulgaria)
2017 „When ...” – painting (Elena Karamikhailova Gallery, Shumen, Bulgaria)
2018 „The Memory of Words” – painting (National Library, Sofia)
2019 „The Cart of the Village of Mogila” (painting, Elena Karamikhailova Gallery, Shumen, Bulgaria)
2020 „Metamorphoses I” – kiklochromes, painting (Raphael Mikhailov Exhibition Halls, Veliko Tirnovo, Bulgaria)
H o n o u r s and R e c o g n i t i o n s:
1992 Memorial badge of John Paul II for artistic expression
1996 Distinction for creative inventions of the University of Milan (Italy)
1998 Award for the project „Antonio Canova and Giacomo Leopardi”, University of Milan (Italy)
1999 Winner of the Silver Badge of the city of Gemona (Italy) for contribution to culture and art
2000 Certificate of Honour of His Holiness Maxim, Patriarch of Bulgaria
2005 Special Prize of the Salon of Arts, National Palace of Culture, Sofia
