OPENING RECEPTION | Saturday, April 30, 2–5pm
Municipal Bonds is honored to present Rocketships, a mixed-media exhibition by the late Bulgarian-born American artist Mihail (1929–2021). Inspired by the iconic moment of the early 1980s when NASA launched its first space shuttle, Mihail created a body of work themed on space travel. His series of architectonic drawings, dream-like paintings, atmospheric watercolors, and model sculptures from the 1980s and 90s celebrate the era of nascent space exploration. During a time of quantum leaps in science and the acceleration of humanity's hope in outer space discovery, Mihail's work captured the transcendent imagination and optimism around what he simply called "rocketships."
Mihail's approach removed pictorial rules and formalities, as he created his own stylistic mix of modernism and futurism in a range of mediums and topical inquiry. His rocketship drawings on yellow pad paper—playfully rendered as if for formal research—calculate costs of materials, strategically consider wind direction, and analyze launch dynamics. In counterpoint, his watercolors are more poetic abstractions than witty machinations, composed of an outpouring of emotionally-colored water and energetic marks.
Often painted then overpainted, Mihail's oil on canvas space-scapes are equal measure color experience and surrealist motifs, featuring ubiquitous soft pink and sometimes a shadow figure seated and observant (human, god, alien?). His rocket sculptures combine rudimentary elements of metal and wood—handheld in size, whimsical in construction, the mighty becomes childlike. And his large charcoal and pastel drawings convey monumental revelry in scale and motion, where power is expressed through the physicality of gesture and bold line work.
The French word "Desirée" appears occasionally in Mihail's work—like the ceremonious dedication of a ship's name—apt for the ambitions of space, the desire to know the cosmic unknown. Whether stationed at launchpads or lofted into space, Rocketships represents the ethos of space adventure: action and expansion, emotion and rigor, mystery and wonderment. Made decades ago, the series exemplifies ideas and aspirations as relevant today as then, limitless curiosity and belief in the power of humankind's reach—Mihail's vision for the future.
Mihail Simeonov (1929–2021) was born in Bulgaria, exiled to Tunisia in the 60s, and settled in New York in the 70s. He studied philosophy and sculpture and earned a PhD at the Fine Art Academy of Sofia. During the decade after graduation, he created bronze sculptures for public art and national commissions in his home country. In 1965, after a confrontation with the communist government regarding their rejection of one of his public monuments, Mihail went into exile. From 1965 to 1971, the artist's studio was in Tunisia, a place Mihail cherished for its exuberant colors and old culture. While there he completed statues of President Bourguiba, monumental marble sculptures for the national monument in Bizerta, and sculptures for the city of Tunis. In 1971, Mihail immigrated to the United States and embarked on his project Cast the Sleeping Elephant. His cast of an African wild bull elephant was envisioned as a symbol of nature and a platform for ecological activism on behalf of all wildlife. The elephant was cast in 1980 in the wilderness of Kenya without harm to the animal, and the life-size bronze was permanently installed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Subsequent Sleeping Elephant exhibitions were held in Kenya, Milan, Stockholm, Geneva, Zurich, and New York. Mihail's work was created in thematic series: Sunday Morning, Minotaur, Sky-Walker, Wire-Wire, and Rocketships. His legacy includes an international exhibition history and seven decades of work held in various major museums including the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland; Musée des Arts, Tunis, Tunisia; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; History Museum, Samokov, Bulgaria; the Ahrenberg Collection and private collections worldwide.