Gabrovo 1960

Dobri Dobrev made this painting of Gabrovo with oil on canvas, and right away you notice the brushstrokes – they're like soft whispers, laying the scene out in gentle touches. There's this wonderful sense of process, the way he builds the scene, piece by piece. Look at how Dobrev handles the buildings – they're solid, but the paint is thin, almost transparent, like they’re emerging from the landscape. Then you see the water, a shimmering blue, thick with impasto, reflecting the sky. There's a real tension between the solid and the ephemeral, the way he’s captured a moment that’s both fleeting and eternal. My eye keeps getting drawn to the lower-left corner where the green grasses are. In contrast to the rest of the painting, they have a real energy, like a burst of life. It reminds me a little of the way Cezanne looked at architecture, or perhaps Corot, Dobrev really makes me feel the weight and substance of the paint. All of it is held together, in tension, in conversation. It is about opening up to a space of multiple readings.