(b Kazanluk, 22 Feb 1899; d Sofia, 26 April 1986). Bulgarian painter, stained-glass designer, ceramicist, illustrator and teacher. He studied art under Karl von Maar at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, and in 1924 under Stephan Ivanov (1875–1951) at the National Academy of Arts (Natsionalna Hudozhestvena Academia), Sofia. He became known as an artist who worked in a wide variety of media, executing paintings, book illustrations and stained glass. In 1922 he became the youngest member of the NATIONAL ART SOCIETY OF BULGARIA and later its chairman. He was also chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Artists for several terms. During the 1930s Uzunov became known as a master of portrait painting: among his best-known works are the Poet Liliev (1929), the Theatre Director Masalitinov (1931) and the Actor Krustyo Sarafov in the Role of Falstaff (1932; all Sofia, N.A.G.). From 1938 he was a professor of painting at the National Academy of Arts, Sofia. He represented Bulgaria at the Venice Biennale in 1942, 1948 and 1964. As a stained-glass artist, he executed commissions for the Bulgarian National Bank (1942), the Court House (1938–43) and the University of Sofia (1980), and he did a ceramic wall piece for the Opera House in Stara Zagora. His frescoes include those for the Hall of Culture in Karlovo and the National Theatre in Sofia, the latter done in 1976. His last large public commission was the fresco Apotheosis of Bulgarian Culture (1981) in Hall Nine of the National Palace of Culture, Sofia. In his late works, for example Self-portrait (1979; Sofia, N.A.G.) and Cain and Abel (1979; Samokov A.G.), he began to use abstract forms. In 1978 he became an academician at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Balgarskara Akademija na Nankite). He was also a president of the International Association of the Plastic Arts at UNESCO in Paris.

• Uzunov, Dechko
  • collaboration
    • Vassilyov, Ivan
  • patrons and collectors
    • Bulgaria, §XII: Museums, collections and art libraries
  • pupils
    • Baev, Georgi
  • works
    • Bulgaria, §III, 4: Painting and graphic arts, after 1878