Nikolai Kuchkov welcomes back his friends, whose fleeting nature he has captured in drawings, cartoons and portraits, with rhymes. The Plovdiv Art Gallery is the place where the artists - the late Dimitar Kirov, Georgi Bozhilov-Slona (meaning elephant), Georgi Boyadjiev-Boyadjana are meeting as if it is Friday again and, as usual, they are getting together in an emblematic pub, bearing the name of the city, as they once did. To conjure up one more shared moment, Kuchkov is displaying works in which he has depicted Plovdiv’s most prominent painters of the 20th century.

“From time to time I write – without pretence – and the text conveys my feelings for my friends, who are no longer with us,” says the artist, who has put his verses on the exhibition poster. “But I still converse with them, that is why something impelled me to mount this rather strange exhibition. It is not sentimental but is very emotional for me. Maybe because we are brimming with get-togethers that never came to pass,” says Nikolai Kuchkov and tries to describe their meetings, the conversations they accumulated on Fridays over many years:

“It is but a fleeting moment of our life together with friends and nothing more – a moment we have shared. We didn’t discuss art much, I’d say not at all, but we did kid around, that was our style. Making merry in the pub, searching for insights in the studio.”

That was how, between the kidding and the wine, Nikolai Kuchkov drew his cartoons. One of them is of Nacho Kulturata (Atanas Krustev) – the man who breathed life into the old part of Plovdiv. He liked to make fun all the time, pretending to be serious but he was actually really amusing and highly intelligent, Nikolai Kuchkov remembers and goes on:

“Dimitar Kirov was decorated by Pope John Paul II and I drew a really amusing cartoon - him sitting on the Papal throne, but instead of a cross it had an easel and paintbrushes, his feet in Papal slippers on the Papal cushion. The caption read: “Dimitar Kirov was decorated by the Pope and became Pope of all artists.” His personality was really domineering – to other people, not to us, his closest friends - and he would react to our banter with a great sense of humour. Georgi Bozhilov on the other hand has a portrait called In memoriam. It didn’t seem right to draw cartoons of him, he was not that kind of person. He was an angel like Tsanko Panov – the two were friends, they were so alike. We were all the best of friends, but they had a special kind of friendship. Georgi Boyadjiev-Boyadjana also has a portrait painted in all seriousness, but he also has cartoons that are funny. But I paint these works most of all for the people who still remember my friends – though I am sure they shall never be forgotten because they have made such a difference, as artists but also as human beings. To me they are alive, their works are there to be seen – as if time has stood still.”

Each one of these artists has his own story, a path they have travelled. But only Nikolai Kuchkov has had the good fortune of learning from renowned Cuban artist Servando Cabrera Moreno whom he spent several years with. Later, as a token of respect for the acclaimed artist, he painted a self-portrait in the style typical of him.

“I do not paint or write every single day,” the artist says. “There are people who plough the field every day. I prefer to wait at the source. When there’s been heavy rain, the water runs turbid, but I wait for the clear water to come to get my fill.”

Highly original in his art, Nikolai Kuchkov certainly stands out in a crowd – with his faithful hat perched on his head, his dachshund Choko at his heels – he too has been immortalized in paint and rhyme.

English version: Milena Daynova