The Bulgarian Sculpture through the Work of Panayot Dimitrov – Ponkata. Problems and Features

Abstract

The Bulgarian sculpture in the conditions of the totalitarian system of government is developing dynamically and contradictingly. Monumental art, commissioned to promote and propagate the power of the totalitarian state in line with its growing needs, has become a leading and largely general process. The international and national sculpture symposiums organized in the second half of the 20th century also played an important role in its release from the imposed external norms. During the days of socialism serious artists created valuable works of constant value, proving that there can be no obstacle to the great art. The work of the sculptor Panayot Dimitrov - Ponkata is distinguished by a pronounced modern style, which is felt most strongly in his cavalier stulptures. The tendency to decay the figurative beginning and the penetration of the abstract forms originally developed in the cavalier, and gradually in the monumental sculpture. The change of authority in 1989 and the subsequent, protracted "transition period" also reflected in the field of monumental art, and Bulgaria's economic decline dramatically reduced the sculptors' ability to express themselves.