One of the monumental Bulgarian paintings from 1950s "Rhodope Wedding" or "A Maiden Bids Farewell to Her Family" has been restored. It is the work by the famous Smolyan painter Anastas Staykov who depicted on his canvas a wedding between a Christian and a Muslim with a total of 80 figures.
Staykov's painting is exhibited in the art gallery in Smolyan. The canvas returns 60 years after it was first exhibited.
This is the "second premiere" of the painting by Anastas Staykov, said Nikola Damyanov, former director of the Regional History Museum in Smolyan. As a contemporary of the events related to the “Rhodope Wedding” in 1958, Damianov pointed out that the painting was received in a very different way by the official critics and by the audience. Archival data and a saved protocol show that the ruinous criticism of the painting was orchestrated by the communist nomenclature.
The impressive painting is 4m x 2.50m. It features a wedding between a Christian man and a Muslim woman, and like every other work of Anastas Staykov brings to live the spirit of the Rhodopes region.
Staykov’s daughter, Dr Maria Staykova, who lives in Australia, donated the "Rhodope Wedding" to the Art Gallery in Smolyan in 2014.
After prolonged restoration period, the painting was first exhibited on May 19th 2018 at the “Night of the Museums” in Smolyan.
