Who is Violeta Maslarova?

Violeta Christova Maslarova (Bulgarian: Виолета Христова Масларова) (1925–2006) was a noted Bulgarian artist known for her affectionate and moody seascapes. Along similar to Georgi Baev and Kiril Simeonov she was often referred to as one of the ‘Bourgas Colourists’. Her career spanned both the communist and the capitalist times of Bulgaria with poisoned effects on her art and career.

Maslaraova (née Buchvarova) was born to a poor family in Burgas, Bulgaria. Her father, Christo Buchvarov was a builder who succumbed at a relatively minor age to prickly Parkinson’s disease, brought upon according to associates tradition by situation failure caused by his partner’s embezzlement, which left him a partial invalid. Zhetchka, her mother, kept the associates by selling flower pots and cultivating vegetables.

See also  Who is Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig?

Maslaraova showed and early power for drawing. This was encouraged by her teachers and her mother. She was admitted to the art academy in National Academy of Arts in Sofia in 1944, where she studied under Professor Detchko Ouzounov, himself a buddy of Jules Pascin, with whom he had studied painting in Berlin.

Following graduation Violeta married the lawyer Dimiter Nikolov Maslarov. Her paintings were very capably received and she was admitted to the Union of Bulgarian Artists. Under the communist regime this was an important step for any artist. Membership gave automatic log on to many regional and national exhibitions, invitations to plein-air workshops, the possibility of let in commissions and the likelihood of purchases by let pass bodies and dependent organisations. Violeta was plus included in ‘fraternal delegations’ to Czechoslovakia, Roumania and the USSR.

Although ‘Socialist Realism’ was the official edit to the visual arts in Bulgaria artists yet found ways of subverting the credited line. Such expedients as painting factories using a cubist grid or painting workers’ demonstrations using a heightened palette were common. Maslarova’s greeting was to influence towards seascapes and flowers paintings. The seascapes often included the local fishermen past their boats and nets, an officially ‘appropriate’ subject, but within a landscape that tended towards a minimal abstraction. Besides receiving official commendation these were plus popular in the middle of the cultural community, bringing her the worship both of the public and her peers. In 1966 she was awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius for her facilities to the arts.

See also  17 facts about Jan Betley

As the communist regime drew to a near Maslarova, now a widow, found conditions in Bulgaria to be increasingly hard and in 1988 moved to the UK. Despite steady sales of her paintings and a solo perform the Charlotte Lampard gallery in London she was unable to have the same opinion and, following the slip of the Zhivkov regime, returned to Bulgaria in 1992, where she lived until her death in 2006.

Her complex years in Bulgaria produced mixed results artistically. With state support severely curtailed there was increased pressure to produce and sell work. The malingering of her husband, one of her best critics, and the dependence to sell more law meant that she had to accomplish more conscientiously than back but that the paintings became more regulating in quality. Despite this she was named as the ‘Artist of the Year’ in 1999 and elected a freeman of the city of her original Bourgas in 2000. Her best play-act remained her seascapes, with their tender palette of muted blues, violets and purples. Despite their simple composition they were, in fact, heavily worked going through many variations previously arriving at their curtains state. Surprisingly for someone trained in a classical discipline, her complex portraits do little to include her reputation, which must depend upon her seascapes and some of her complex flower paintings.

What do you think of the works of Violeta Maslarova?

Use the form below to say your opinion about Violeta Maslarova. All opinions are welcome!

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.