Hristo Kralev - paintings - 11-23 of September

THE LANDSCAPE SPACES OF HRISTO KRAVEL Yoto Patsov

The great creators themselves create the world they inhabit. It is often at the limit of human knowledge, but often goes beyond it to allow us to peer into those spiritual spaces where the laws of man's being and visions fade into the almost unbearable light of spiritual elevation. Hristo Kralev makes a special passion, which gives a glimpse of cosmic harmony without leaving the mysterious territory of Bulgarian soul and tradition. Achieving this with the means of the figural composition is like reaching the Sun's protuberances with the wings of the Icarus, but it does so, unlike the Icarus, successfully.

The space in which Hristo Kralev's generous talent makes his picturesque discoveries is easy to find - he himself has marked them in his emblematic cycle for the elements of earth, water, fire and air. "Stichia on the ground" is tiny in size, but a vast amount of panorama of the man-made planet, where the central figure is the symbolic beginning of the fusion between the woman and the earth - an unusual but very powerful reading of the myth of the earth-mother narrated from the dawn of mankind in images like those of the Villendorf and other Cromanian Venus. The "Water Styx", with the gesture of our hands, reminds us of counting money and the saying about the Gergyov rain, in which every drop is yellow - and how else should the physical basis of our life be mainly water. "Firestyle" with its burning color is the subject of the connection that Hermes Trismegist's "Emerald Strip" tells us about the equivalence of what is above and what is below with the fiery horses of the solar chariot below with the fire-dancing Mysteries of the Bulgarian. "Air Styxia" rumbles in the copper tubes of the wind orchestra, in which the whiff of the wind and the flight of the bird give rise to the feeling of eternal motion and a faint melody.

In general, in the works of Hristo Kralev, the obvious double-layer of human existence is clearly traced - the epicenter of the creative act is the sacral, the mystical, surrounded by the beatiful, both reaching the epic. This is the chanting of the Bread, Sunrise, Spring, Sleep of the Moon ... The cycling of the seasons in our medium latitudes in these works far exceeds the time of the year and becomes the apotheosis of the celebration of the human beginning in the inhabited world with its unchangeable attributes - "Seasons", "Frost", "Winter", "Harvest Song", "Summer", "White Silence" ... Another thematic group creates a sense of historical and spiritual infinity - "Full Moon" "Thracian Land", "Memory of Heaven", "Jagga", "Flower" ...

Hristo Kralev totally ignores the modern themes of the technological civilization with its rational attributes, because the territory of his creativity is the Bulgarian eternity, where the conjunctural and the episodic are only glossy and kitschously bright packaging of frequently transient mirages, often lacking in true content and value. At the same time his perfect painting technique achieves degrees of influence in which the eyes are only a means, the emotions - only reason, the intellect - only a way of directly perceiving the world of the eternal man created by him, extremely rich and deep.

One more thing - the physical form of the works is achieved through the use of architectural / in some cases - anthropomorphic / elements an additional monumentality that places the pictorial story at the epicenter of the human universe.

And if a person, with an open heart and pure soul, takes on this charming and profound painting, he will surely exclaim like me:

Thank you, God gave me the opportunity to meet you, Hristo Kralev Biography of the author: Born on 08.08. 1952 in the town of Dobrich.

In 1988 he graduated from the National Art Academy, Sofia-special Painting in the class of Prof. Dobri Dobrev.

To date, Hristo Kralev has numerous solo exhibitions in the country and around the world, including:

-Krida Art Gallery-Sofia-5 in number

-Hotel Sheraton Sofia

-Gallery "Rakovski" 125-Sofia

-Normal Gallery-Sofia, 2 in number

-Gallery "Rakursi" -Sofia

-Maestro Gallery -Sofia

-Ata Rai Gallery-Sofia

-Gallery "Style" - Albena-3 complex

-Cavallet Gallery-Varna-7 in number

-Garden Dobrich Gallery-3 in number

- Balchik Gallery - 3 in number

Outside the country, Hristo Kralev has held solo exhibitions in France-2, Vienna (Austria), Russia, Germany-5, as well as over 260 international, national and regional performances.