Lyuben Dimanov

Lyuben Dimanov was born in Bulgaria in 1933 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. After obtaining multiple international prizes, he settles in France in 1976 returning to his homeland on a regular basis.

He works in the field of painting and wall-monumental arts, but shortly after his graduation he focuses on the graphic (including etching, lithography and monotype), the illustration and the drawing. He is considered a modernist and one of the emblematic names of Bulgarian graphics in the 1960s and 1970s. 

In his work, Lyuben Dimanov explores the fundamentally conflictual universe of Man. Engaged through his double nature, animal and mental, in a perpetual search for harmony, Man, faced with multiple solicitations from modernity, finds equilibrium to this double universe at the expense of diverse tensions he must fight with. Lyuben Dimanov symbolizes this effort through depersonalized human figures that inherently bring us back to our selves. Often dogs, horses or bulls represent the forces we must strive with: animal, instinctive, intellectual and creative. In front of all-powerful animals, Man seems to harmonize his gestures. Arrows symbolically represent these forces’ dynamics and the numerous interactions from society. Letters symbolically represent modifications imposed on us by our social universe. Dimanov sometimes even uses newspaper clippings to depict how our de-humanized universe leads individuals to prioritize the active life over the affective one.

A unique artist in his pictorial art, Dimanov transmits a sensitive and emotive vision through a movement and force that characterize him. He complements this universe of contradictions with a play on forms (gracious lines) and colors which nature’s tender or violent sensuality may inspire him. Dimanov’s drawings are full of vitality through a combination of grace, movement and force. Oils, collages, engravings … all demonstrate and confirm Dimanov’s mastery of the trade.