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Lika Yanko

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Bulgarian artist
Lika Yanko
BornEvangjelia Grabova
(1928-03-19)March 19, 1928
Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria
DiedJune 22, 2001(2001-06-22) (aged 73)
Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria
NationalityBulgarian
Known forPainting
MovementNational Academy of Arts
AwardsSofia Award (1989)

Lika Yanko (Bulgarian: Лика Янко; March 19, 1928 – June 22, 2001, born with the name Evangjelia Grabova) was a Bulgarian artist born in Sofia. Her paintings are renowned for their abstract nature and their use of found materials.

Biography

Lika Yanko was born in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, in 1928. She was born to Albanian immigrant parents from the region of Grabova in Albania. She was born with the name Evangjelia Grabova. Her father was Llazër Grabova. Her family were Orthodox Christians. Her mother Efrosina was originally from the village of Llëngë, within the town of Trebinjë which is by Pogradec, Albania. Her family spoke the Albanian language in the Tosk dialect. Lika has a brother Petar and a sister Danka. Her family migrated to Bulgaria from Albania due to a blood feud known as Gjakmarrje in Albanian. Her father's cousin was murdered therefore her family retaliated towards the murderer and then fled to Bulgaria to avoid more bloodshed.

She studied at the French College in Sofia, where she was exposed to artists as Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, who influenced her art. In 1946 she joined the National Academy of Arts studying painting in the classes of Prof. Dechko Uzunov and Prof. Iliya Petrov, but she did not graduate. At the time, her work was met with criticism and resistances both from state authorities and the aesthetic preferences of her professors and other contemporary painters.

Her paintings are frequently colorful, although the white color is predominant or easily notable because, according to the Lika, this is the color of God. Her canvases often encapsulate beads, buttons, hemp ropes, nuts, glass, pebbles.

Her first solo exhibition was in Sofia in 1967 but paintings were branded as avant-garde and the show was banned several days after it opened. Yanko continued to paint but did not exhibited her canvases until 1981, when she was invited for an exhibition personally by Lyudmila Zhivkova. In the mid-1970s and later in the 80s her paintings began to be bought by foreign embassies and received the attention of European galleries. In 1989 she received the Sofia Award.

Yanko had only 7 exhibitions during her lifetime. She died on June 22, 2001, in Sofia from pneumonia, only a few days after the opening of her last exhibition, in the Cavallet Gallery in Varna.

References

  1. Dimitrova, Svetlana (12 January 2020). "Lika Yanko's sacral world". Radio Bulgaria. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  2. ^ Tsankova, Diana (27 September 2017). "Lika Yanko – God breathes behind the whiteness of her works". Radio Bulgaria. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  4. Farka, Kurt (24 February 2018). "Si e njoha artisten e madhe me origjinë shqiptare, Lika Janko". Shqiperia.com (in Albanian). Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  5. "Lika Yanko". www.galleryloran.com. 1928. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  6. Gicheva-Meimari, Rossitsa (2023-11-15). "Christmas Auction 2023 - Lika Yanko, Artist of the Invisible". ENAKOR. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
  7. ^ "50 since the first solo exhibition of Lika Yanko". Nuance Art Gallery. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  8. "Lika Yanko (1928-2001)". Nuance Art Gallery. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  9. "Lika Yanko (1932–2001)". Art Price Bulgaria (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  10. Krumova, Lucy (14 June 2001). Лика Янко не се разделя с любимите си картини [Lika Yanko does not part with her favorite paintings]. Стандарт (in Bulgarian). Archived from the original on 28 August 2004. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  • Content in this edit is translated from the existing Bulgarian Misplaced Pages article at bg:Лика Янко; see its history for attribution.

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