Parushev is one of the lyrical and reasonable abstractionists who paints sensually and wisely, with an unadulterated elemental attitude to painting. The current exhibition is related to his 65th anniversary, but it is not retrospective, but demonstrates the last emotional searches of a tireless artist, touching with his spiritual searches in color. His creative research in the field of non-figurative painting marks a path to self-knowledge, important for every artist, but also a necessary and deliberately induced reflection in the viewer to reach that elusive "spiritual in art".
In February 2022, Atanas Parushev was fairly awarded the "Vladimir Dimitrov - Master" painting award. His work is highly appreciated by both professionals and the public. The artist is also a winner of the "Sirak Skitnik" (2000 and 2002), "Dobri Chintulov" (2007) awards, and his works are owned by the National Art Gallery, the Sofia City Art Gallery, the Sliven "Dimitar Dobrovich" Gallery, the "Vladimir" Art Gallery Dimitrov - Master", private collections at home and abroad.
Standing in front of the abstract works of Atanas Parushev, the viewer's consciousness is inevitably absorbed by the impact of the flickering shades from the thinly laid layers of color, even engulfed in the depth and three-dimensionality, creating the feeling of invisible volumes. His compositions are minimalistic, reduced to free, almost calligraphically moving verticals along the slope of the letter "M". Somewhere "M" refers the thought of the tempted viewer to a bookshelf, elsewhere it reminds of the blazing sunrise over the horizon or simply exalts the emotionality of the observer with pulsating colorful rays of light. But each work draws you in, invites you to stand in front of it and sink, like a meditative refrain, into the sparkling tones fluttering like butterfly wings and the depth of darkness behind them. The abstract world of Atanas Parushev tempts the sensitive and inquisitive viewer with the laconic and quiet, rhythmic narrative. As a skilled composer, creating music from pulsating color harmonies, he experiments with the properties of tones, with the power of the geometry of colors and their rhythm. Removing all superfluous forms creating a concrete story, he aims to reach the completely pure vertical as a sign of ascension and spiritualization, of gradual merging with heaven and harmony in the heights, of a connection between the earthly, the human and the heavenly. Because according to Parushev, "the way up to pure ecstatic knowledge and experience is more direct, clearer, shorter with the help of the mystical experience in abstract painting, like mysticism in Christianity, Zen in Buddhism or Sufi in Islam". And if these paintings evoke excitement, reflection or sympathy, then they will fulfill the artist's desire "to awaken COMPASSION - the highest morality, the absence of selfishness, complacency, simplicity and intolerance." He believes that the light emanating from the picture must be a mystical aura, a spiritual space that will stop, absorb the viewer into himself, make him walk thoughtfully inside. "Perhaps the animal became a man, contemplating the bloody sunrises and sunsets, the black nights and the shining stars," says Parushev
