Georgy Jelezarov

The artist Georgi Angelov Zhelezarov was born on 25.1.1897 in the picturesque Pirin village Marchevo among the poorness of the abandoned Nevrokop region. His native village was named after his grandfather, Marcho, who died in the struggle against Turkish slavery.

He graduated the Sarski Gymnasium, and then the School of Art in Sofia (now Art Academy) at Josef Pieter, a Czech professor with whom Peter Morozov, Mikhail Krastev, Vasil Zahariev, Nikolay Raynov and Ivan Milev studied during that period.

In 1920 he became a founding member of the anti-academic and progressive, eclectic association "Independent Artists". In 1924 he made an exhibition in Nevrokop and then, in an effort to touch different worlds during the period 1926-1928, he visited Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Istanbul. There he comes in contact with the lifestyle of the Arab world and his palette creates wonderful pastel and oil paintings, reflecting typical landscapes, household scenes of social misery.

After returning to Bulgaria, he took part in art exhibitions in 1937-1943, and in 1941 he made a solo exhibition which was very successful and the princess Evdokia bought the painting "The Pirin".

Because of his modesty and exaltedness, due to his ingenuity in art, G. Zhelezarov did not achieve a professional career and was assigned to his graphic specialty as head of the Lithographic Department of the State Printing Works, where he worked for more than 25 years - until his retirement. His precise work is connected with the production of originals of banknotes, postage stamps, excise labels, certificates issued by the Presidium of the National Assembly.

The artistic aesthetics of G. Zhelezarov is reflected in the watercolor, gwashe and oil painting as the most dense feel for the world and life. The artistic aesthetics of G. Zhelezarov is reflected in the watercolor, gouache and oil painting as the most dense feeling for the world and life. His rich spirituality leads brush from the unique Bulgarian natural and rural landscape to rural working life, the sad fate of the woman and our typical markets.

In his works, the artist has a sense of compositional rhythm, graphic accents that give decorative pulsation to every place in a unique way.

Georgi Zhelezarov's work speaks for a contemporary modern worldview, deeply subordinate to his philosophical understanding and richness of soul. It very accurately reflects the essence of its author: searching for labor, modestly, without self-discovery, but with the persistence of the constant explorer of the human, of the soul, of the wisdom, of the ordinary, the earthly.

Georgi Zhelezarov's painting is fresh and dense, carries the precision and thoughtfulness of the graphic expression and the colorful drawing, which are sometimes conditional and leave the general impression of a generalized color, a true and accurate line and a soft halftone.

Self-absorbed and morally satisfied by his contact with his "objects", the artist has left creativity that respects with his practical skill and balanced style with the instinctive belief in the truth. The whole life of Georgi Zhelezarov is possessed by his indescribable passion to work out of nature all the seasons of the year.