An artist, forgotten for decades – Yakim Banchev, is about to be rediscovered, thanks to the Sofia Art Gallery and its Restoration of Memory research series. It aims at the discovery of unknown or less familiar names and facts in the sphere of fine arts. The exposition, devoted to Yakim Banchev can be seen at the Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, an affiliate of SAG. The artist was born in 1884 and he graduated the elite Aprilovska High School in the town of Gabrovo. He came upon devoted art teachers there, Georgi Mitov, the brother of great Bulgarian artist Prof. Anton Mitov being one of them. Fascinated by art, Yakim Banchev would go to study with three academies of art: in Sofia, Dresden and Turin. In Italy he graduated architecture and fine arts. Yakim devoted ten years to his American dream, willing to make his name as an artist beyond the ocean. There are two major topics in his work: man and the war.

“He participated in the Balkan War /1912 – 1913/, then in the Great War, documenting their horrors. However, it is not the horror that we see in his big battle canvases, as with some other artists, but the suffering man, his entire pain”, says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria art expert Plamen Petrov. “It is that polarization of his work – from naked bodies to that strangled moan of the period 1912 – 1918, which makes in my opinion Yakim Banchev’s works really interesting. That is why I think his name should be remembered. Of course, it has been long time forgotten, because upon his return from the USA in 1933, the artist had already been isolated from the artistic processes in this country. He was too different from what was happening on Bulgaria’s cultural stage. That was why he stayed aside from artistic life, maybe also due to his total lack of ambition to prove anything here.”

The USA of the late 1920s and the early 1930s with all their social and economic problems were not the most hospitable place for any kind of art. However, upon his return to Bulgaria, Yakim Banchev suffered a cultural shock: the artistic side of life was still not organized, there were no private galleries, only common exhibitions and there were few artists… Yakim decided to opt for another occupation. Moreover, his brother was among the major traders in the pharmaceutical branch and his bureau provided the living of Banchev’s family. How far do we know this artist’s inheritance?

“The heritage of Yakim Banchev within state owned collections is really modest,” Plamen Petrov points out. “A significant part of it can be found at the Sofia Art Gallery / SAG/ funds; other things are to be looked for at the National Museum of Military History. Private collectors own many other paintings, which remain unknown and have never been exhibited. Of course, during his stay in America he painted a lot, mostly portraits of his friends from the intellectual circles there. Luckily, one of his grandsons, who now lives in Paris, went along his footsteps in the 1980s and documented his American works, photographing many of the paintings. The former Sofia apartment of the artist also keeps some of his works. We can’t show it all and our goal is more modest at this stage – to lift the curtain and display the name of Yakim Banchev.”

A treatise is being prepared with the detailed story of the artist’s life and work, accompanied by reproductions of his works. Those will outnumber significantly what has been displayed at the exhibition.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev