An exhibition entitled “Rhythm", dedicated to one of the renowned Bulgarian artists - Edmond Demirdjian / 1951-2009 /, has been opened at the Debut Gallery of the National School of Fine Arts "Iliya Petrov". The title of the exhibition – reflects one of the talents of the artist - percussion and music.

The exhibition, supported by the "Europe" Program of the Sofia Municipality and the "Vapreki" Foundation, puts on display some unknown works. Here is what art historian Maria Vassileva told us about Edmond Demirdjian:

“Edmond grew up in an ordinary family. His father was a turner and his mother was a seamstress. However, those were people with attitude of precision to the craft. I've heard legends about his mother's skills. So, he probably inherited talents from his parents, but nobody urged him to paint.”

Edmond Demirdjian has graduated in mural painting from the National Academy of Fine Arts. Even as a young man, he showed musical talent, his first percussion instrument was a pig's skin stretched over his grandmother's embroidery frame. At the same time, he showed interest in painting. This is something he obviously had in himself and developed over the years, Maria Vassilevasays. She points out that the artist was going through several stages over time. There is a very distinct period, which is also of great interest to art-lovers. We are talking about figural compositions, seemingly realistic, but not so much, because these are strange combinations of people, bicycles, coats, that we cannot see in real life. And his characters were stylized in a special, grotesque way.

“In his late period the focus of his works shrinks a lot.One can see a few favorite motifs that he has - his turbots, which are his trademark fish. He was less interested in what the painting told, but in how it would affect the viewer through the combination of colors, shapes, lines."

During his visit to Varna in 2008, the artist "accompanied" 4 of his paintings with percussion performance. According to Maria Vassileva, his music is quite picturesque, and his painting is full of rhythm and contrast, like music. This is how the artist divided his everyday life between his various passions:

Music was almost everything. Let's say it is 50 percent love for music and 50 percent love for visual arts. His used to split his time in half. For half a day he was playing the drums and practicing. He was a very consistent person who studied in detail the history of music, and more specifically the development of the drums ... Edmond was absolutely devoted to art. It seemed as if nothing else interested him. Things like birthdays, New Year celebrations, etc. did not exist for him. No excuses existed and each day he played the drums and painted. And he was doing this with incredible pleasure.

Edmond Demirdjian loved communication with young people, artists and musicians, who were always around him. A good and successfully realized idea was to present the exhibition in the National School of Fine Arts, where his career started, Maria Vassilevasays. Since 2010 onwards, each September the annual Edmond Demirdjian Foundation Award for contemporary young artists is awarded. Here is how Ms. Vassileva sums up the essence of Demirdjian's work:

“The art of Edmond is full of positive energy and that is why so many people like it. His worksseem abstract, but there are always elements of reality that help people feel comfortable. And, because of the very bright colors and irradiation, he had a lot of fans and he still has them.”

English: Alexander Markov