Commissioner: Rosario Escobar

Artist Valentín Kovatchev presents a magnificent exhibition titled Retrospectiva, featuring one hundred and twenty-five works dated between 1959 and 2007. He uses different drawing, watercolour, xylography, dry point, etching, and oil painting techniques.

He was born in Sofia (Bulgaria) in 1953, in a family of lawyers and diplomats. Ever since he was a child, he has shown a special interest in drawing, as you can see in his drawing made when he was just six, and the superb portraits of poets, philosophers, and politicians when he was only ten.

He graduated in Fine Arts in 1981, and specialised in engraving. He left traditional drawing and oil painting and aside for years and devoted himself to research into engraving, a technique that fascinated him just like great masters Rembrant, Durero, Goya and Picasso, among others. In 1987, he invented the engraving technique etching, which has made him so popular both nationally and internationally. On the one hand, there is drawing on the matrix plate with a simple fine sewing needle, and on the other hand, there is the nitric acid and water solution, which allows to submerge the plates into nitric acid no less than 40/60 times. With this complex drawing process on metal and the different graduations of the acid his engravings are really unique.

We must stand out that the never made any sketch or drawing prior to his works and the printing of his graphic works is made by the artist himself. This guarantees both the number of works in the market and their quality.

In 1996 he went back to traditional drawing and in 2001 to oil painting. Some of these works will be displayed at the exhibition, whereas others are included in the UNESCO project titled "The Golden Book of the World Plastic Arts’.

In 1995 he was appointed as Academic by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de  Santa Isabel de Hungría, of Seville and in 1996, he was appointed as Academic of the Senate by the Accademia Internazionale di Arte Moderna of Rome.

His work has been nationally and internationally acknowledged and prized on many occasions and is represented in many public and private collections all over the world.

He lives and works in Benalmadena since 1998.

The Exhibition Centre belongs to the Culture department of Benalmadena Town Hall and has edited a magnificent bilingual catalogue Spanish-English with all the exhibited works.

Parallel activities

Opening hours

Tuesdays to Saturdays:                    10:00 to 13:30 and 18:30 to 21:30.
Sundays and bank holidays:              11:00 to 13:30
Closed on Mondays

Free admission.