I recently discovered two female Bulgarian artists at the National Gallery in Sofia (great city for a weekend break, btw). Here are a few favourite paintings from the gallery.
Zheni Mehandzhiyska - Sozopol, 1960s
Zheni Mehandzhiyska (1927–1990) is one of those artists whose work has received relatively little attention since her death, despite exhibiting in Bulgaria throughout the 1960s and 70s. She was known for her landscapes, with an expressive, dynamic approach that takes familiar Bulgarian scenery and reduces it to simplified forms, bold colour and energetic brushwork, with clear echoes of Fauvism.
Lika Yanko - Girls from the Rhodopes, 1960
Lika Yanko (1928–2001) was one of Bulgaria’s most distinctive 20th-century artists. Her individual, experimental style stood apart from the artistic conventions of the period, combining vivid colour and simplified, symbolic forms with influences from Bulgarian folk art and the natural world.
Zheni Mehandzhiyska - Landscape, 1960s
Interestingly, both Mehandzhiyska and Yanko were part of a group of female artists who travelled together on plein-air painting trips, which gave them the opportunity to work directly from the landscape, which was rare at the time in Bulgaria.
Lika Yanko - Portrait of a Girl in a Green Blouse, early 1960s
While Bulgarian art in the 1960s was still shaped by socialist realism, a younger generation was exploring modernist influences and experimental, personal approaches to colour, form and landscape. Fauvism, in particular, was embraced by artists interested in using colour expressively rather than simply reproducing what they saw.
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Lika Yanko - Townscape with Boat and Figure (left) & Quayside (right), early 1960s
The bold landscapes and dreamy, vivid 1960s palette stood out to me: saturated blues, greens, pinks, oranges, yellows and unexpected colour combinations, used in a way that feels both of the period and surprisingly contemporary.
Lika Yanko - Journey to the Image (29 April - 5 September 2026), at The Palace at the National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
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