Radi Nedelchev

Biography

In the spring of 1971 the Swiss town of Morges held a world exhibition of naïve artists. Second prize went to a Bulgarian, Radi Nedelchev, who was thirty-three years old.

He was born on 1 April 1938 in Ezerche, in what is now Razgrad Province, Bulgaria. From 1954 he lived and worked in Ruse, on the Danube, and the city remained his home for the rest of his life. Where and how he studied could not be established, and I will not guess at it. From 1965 his works appeared at the General Art Exhibition in Bulgaria and at exhibitions abroad: in Geneva, Paris, Munich, Prague, Moscow, Tokyo, Zagreb, Athens, Montreal, Washington and other cities. Solo exhibitions were held in Morges, Budapest, Berlin and Paris, as well as in many Bulgarian galleries. Critics described him as an unquestionable naïve painter working in composition and portraiture. His subjects were rural: landscapes, village life, festivals. Recognition came early, in 1971, with the prize at Morges. Later a number of his works were bought for the museum of Henri Rousseau, “Le Douanier”, in Paris. Nedelchev’s paintings are held by the National Art Gallery in Sofia, the Sofia City Art Gallery, other major galleries in Bulgaria and many private collections abroad.

His works of the 1970s and 1980s are assigned to “Gabrovo humorous symbolism”; to my mind, the term points to the humour found in Bulgarian naïve painting of those years.

Nedelchev was a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists. He held the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, first class, the highest Bulgarian award for art and culture.

He died in Ruse on 4 April 2022, three days after his eighty-fourth birthday.