On 3 October 2016, Gallery Loran opens an exhibition of one of the most enigmatic Bulgarian artists, Dimitar Kazakov – Neron. The curator of the event is Prof. Axinia Dzurova.

The 14 artworks presented were selected from private collections especially for this exposition. Visitors have the opportunity to view works from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — the most fruitful and creative periods of the artist, who had become a legend even during his lifetime, and was recognised as equal in talent to the world-class names of fine art.

Executed either in oil or acrylic paints, in aquarelle or using the technique of woodcarving, Neron’s works are magical tales about the weaving of ancient myths into traditional Bulgarian rituals. Our land, studded with ‘millennial archaeological layers’, was the artist’s greatest inspiration.

The exposition at Loran presents works from all the emblematic cycles in Kazakov’s oeuvre: ‘Motherhood’, 1960s; ‘Family’, 1960s; ‘St. Lazar’s Day Maidens’, 1974; and ‘Masks’, 1980s, among others. The public will certainly be impressed by his large-format canvases — ‘Daughter of a Thracian’, 1980, and ‘Composition’, 1980, with their verse perspective typical of the artist; the unique combination of different view points on the world enhances the viewer’s feeling for the fairy-tale, mythological time in which Neron’s personages live.
The title of the exhibition, ‘Neron, the Enchanter’, was inspired by the film about Dimitar Kazakov (1979) by the famous French writer and critic Jean-Marie Drot, as part of the series ‘Artists – Enchanters, from France and Elsewhere’ (1980): ‘Kazakov is an authentic artist-magician, in other words, an artist whose works, apart from their purely artistic qualities, exert an enchantment upon the viewer in the true sense of the word, as did fairy-tales and legends of old...’ (Dzurova, A., ‘The Myth Dimitar Kazakov – Neron’, Sofia, 2003).

The first television interview with Neron to make him popular was broadcast at the end of 1979; it was conducted by Prof. Dzurova and Kevork Kevorkian. In 1980, Kazakov presented several works at the Rayko Alexiev Gallery. This exhibition marked the beginning of the enormous public recognition of the artist, both in our country and around the world. It was followed by dozens of exhibitions at prestigious galleries in New York, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Tokyo, Toronto, Athens, Basel, Luxembourg, and other cities. To this day, he remains one of the most sought after and collected among artists, while his oeuvre is the subject of numerous studies. His works are owned by museums, galleries, and private collections worldwide.

The exhibition ‘Neron, the Enchanter’ can be visited from 3 October to 28 November 2016, in the salon of Gallery Loran, at 16, Oborishte Street. A catalogue to accompany the exhibition, written by Prof. Axinia Dzurova, will be presented. The official opening is on 3 October, at 18:30.