"The artist's goal is to be able to create a new visual space. We have to invent something that does not exist, a new world, and this is not easy at all. I paint for myself first, I do not take into account any conjunctures, and this is how it should be with every artist."
Dimitar Cholakov
Description
Dimitar Cholakov's work is distinguished by its sensitivity. It is diverse and extensive, both in terms of technique and materials, as well as in terms of impact and suggestion, and at the same time it is distinctive and highly recognizable. His paintings are in the sphere of abstraction, but influenced, seen and emotionally, and materially performed on the basis of objectively existing reality. The current exhibition selects some of his latest paintings, watercolors and "improvisations", united in the theme "Aqua and Earth". Two elements at the basis of the birth of life, which, together with the artist's unprejudiced manner and expressive handwriting, activate perceptions, provoke the individual reaction, the viewer's imagination to the feeling of creating new structures and forms.
Water is the carrier of emotion in Dimitar Cholakov and is outside of time and space. It is the bloodless plasma of his works. The earth is that feeling of hardness, solidity, impermanence and eternity that his paintings evoke. Water is the ingredient that awakens the life of the pigment not only in his watercolors, but also in his canvases. It carries the symbolism of uncontrollable and eternal movement, and the earth - of stability, security, balance. Aqua shines through the soft overflow of tones and colors, like a feeling in its purest form. The earth rises in the relief of colorful multilayered textures, laid down boldly and audaciously with a meaningful and purposeful impact. This continuous rhythm AQUA - EARTH, in Cholakov's painting builds a convincing feeling of a unified and complete image in plastic combinations, giving unlimited freedom to the imagination. Cholakov brings the landscape and memory through a wide range of techniques to conditional visual solutions close to pure abstraction.
“I try to paint with emotion, not to repeat reality. Repeating what the Creator has done is much easier, and there are already technologies that do it perfectly,” shares Cholakov. “Whether people like my work or not, it doesn’t matter, as long as I’m interested, then I’ll do it. In my paintings, I strive to represent feelings, states of the world, of nature. They are not so much materially expressed as emotionally experienced.”
Georgi Bozhilov – The Elephant says: “You can’t put a label on Dimitar Cholakov’s work, it would sound banal, it is not subject to any “-ism”.
Winner of a number of prestigious awards, including the Vladimir Dimitrov - The Master Painting Award in 2023, Prof. Cholakov is a significant figure in contemporary Bulgarian art, not only because of his personal appearances and achievements, but also through his long-standing teaching activity and striving to motivate the next generations, guided by the philosophy "to be what they want, not to repeat. To be an individualist, that is what is important."
Welcome to the exhibition opening on 30.04.2025 /Wednesday/ from 7:00 p.m. in the exhibition spaces of Le Papillon Art Gallery to sense Water and Earth in the work of Prof. Dimitar Cholakov!
