Encho Pironkov

Encho Pironkov was born in the Plovdiv village of Rozovets. He graduated from high school in Plovdiv in 1952. Although he has no art education, Encho Pironkov has a native talent, which was noticed in 1961, when his paintings were shown at the First National Youth Exhibition in Sofia. Since then, Pironkov has realized dozens of solo exhibitions in Plovdiv and Sofia, as well as abroad: Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, Warsaw, Dresden, Cologne, Leipzig and others. Pironkov is one of the artists from the so-called "Plovdiv School of the 1960s", along with Georgi Bozhilov, Dimitar Kirov, Yoan Leviev, Kolyu Vitkovski and Hristo Stefanov. In his works saturated with colour, lyricism and emotion, the main themes are Old Plovdiv, rural life, the April Uprising. Pironkov also works in the field of applied monumental art (mosaics, frescoes, stained glass, wooden and metal sculptures) and stage decoration - his work is the scenery for the film "The Wedding of John Assen". His works are owned by the Bulgarian National Art Gallery, many public and private galleries in Bulgaria, as well as private collections in the United States, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Mexico, Japan, France, Germany. He has won many awards, including the UBA Award in 1964, the Order of Cyril and Methodius in 1979 and the title of "Honored Artist" in 1985. In 2013 he was awarded the Order of Stara Planina, first degree. In 1984 a book was written by Aksinia Dzhurova, dedicated to Pironkov.