Krum Damyanov will be awarded the honorary title Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art

21 December 2022 (Wed)

3:00 pm, Academia Gallery, National Academy of Art, 1 Shipka Street, Sofia

 

On the eve of the bright holiday Nativity of Christ, at a special meetingbe to be held in Academia Gallery, the Academic Council of the National Academy of Art will award the great sculptor Prof. Krum Damyanov wth the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art. The solemn event will be attended by the members of the Academic Council, teachers, students, employees and alumni of the Academy.

 

Krum Damyanov was born in 1937 in Rakitovo, Pazardzhik District, Bulgaria. In 1962, he graduated from the Art Academy in Sofia with a degree in Decorative-monumental Sculpture under Prof. Lyubomir Dalchev. His graduation work "Relay Race Baton" (bronze) is exhibited on the territory of Vassil Levski National Sports Academy, Sofia.

 

1968 maked the beginning of his teaching activity. In the period 1969–1994, he was lecturer, associate professor (1977) and professor (1986) in the Department of Drawing and Modelling within the Faculty of Architecture at the Higher Institute of Architecture and Construction (at present UACG – University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy), Sofia. From 1994 to 2011, as professor he taught at the Department of Sculpture of the National Academy of Art, Sofia. In 2016, he was awarded the scientific title "Academic".

 

Prof. Damyanov created numerous memorial ensembles, monuments, monumental sculptures, decorative sculptures, easel sculptures, among which are: the copper decorative wall panels in Sofia Hotel, 1969, Sofia (jointly with Valentin Starchev and Ivan Neshev), which were destroyed during the reconstruction of the hotel; "Defenders of Stara Zagora" ("The Samara Flag"), 1977, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria (team leader), concrete, granite, bronze, enamel, height 45 m; "Banner of Peace" ("The Bells"), 1978, Sofia (team leader), concrete, bronze, height 37 m; "The Founders of the Bulgarian State", 1981, Shumen, Bulgaria (team leader), concrete, granite, bronze; height 52 m; "Asenevtsi", 1985, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, (team leader), granite, bronze, height 33 m (centre – inverted sword), 15 m (the four figures with the pedestals); "Bull", granite, height 160 m, 1986, Konstanz, Germany; monument of Sophroniy Vrachanski (1989), Vratsa, Bulgaria, bronze, marble, height 5 m; "Gen. Ivan Kolev" (horseman figure, plaster, M 1:1), 2010, unrealised project; "Sveti Sedmochiselnitsi", 2018, composition of 7 figures, aluminum, height 4,20 m.

 

The artist's interest in the force of gravity and resistance is long-standing – he creates installations on the principle of tension, in which the elements are not adjacent. Also, he has designed medals, orders, coins; participated in numerous General Art Exhibitions, the Youth Biennale in Paris (1969), the exhibition "Examples of European Plastic Arts Today", Wiener Secession, Vienna (1969), Autumn Salon – Paris (1979; 1984), and a number of exhibitions in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Germany, India, Moscow, Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest, and in sculpture symposia in Austria, Poland, Germany and South Korea. After 1994, he has held more than 30 solo exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad.

 

Krum Damyanov is distinguished with the highest union and state honours, including Ivan Lazarov Award for Monumental Sculpture (1978; 1982); Dimitrov Prize (1978); Order "Red Banner of Labour" for overall creative activity; Honorable Artist (1981); Contribution to Bulgarian Art Award for overall artistic work by the Union of Bulgarian Artists (1999); Golden Feather (2004); Golden Age Award of the Ministry of Culture  (2006); Badge of Honour of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria (2007); Order "St. Cyril and St. Methodius", I degree (2008); State Award "Paisii Hilendarski" (2009); Order "Stara Planina", I degree (2016); Golden Age Necklace (6 October 2017).