Скулптурата на Стефан Лютаков

Животът на неговите форми е своеобразен и не се поддава на класификации. Избуява свободно и неограничено, развива се и населява пространството с магически фигури на древни вакханки и сатири, цветя и тотеми, преплетени в стремителния танц на природния кръговрат. После завива рязко в друга посока и от света на фантазиите и митовете ни връща обратно в реалността, видяна, усетена и изразена като мъдра, но и жестока притча. Този сложен, често пъти противоречив, артистичен микрокосмос е пронизан и от светлия порив на мечтата, и от рационалния подход на познанието и от прозрението за извечните тайни на сътворението.

Днес изкуството на Стефан Лютаков е зряло, мъдро и цялостно. И отново ни изненадва със силата на внушенията си, с благородството на идеи и емоции, с богатството и изразителността на скулптурната форма

Stefan Lyutakov’s sculpture possesses the remarkable quality to live independently, freely and naturally. It vibrates and breathes, merges with space, leaving in there a human touch, filling it with forms, born in the artist’s mind and provoked by artist’s emotions. Sculptor’s ability to organize space and to place his statues naturally into it is due undoubtedly to his good professional knowledge to work with different materials and even more it is due to his gift to subdue matter to his artistic will and purpose. But there is one more very important characteristics of his art. Stefan Luitakov is an artist, free of the restrictions of conventionalities and stereotypes. He stands for his visions and looks for new, unknown territories in sculpture.

His forms live in a peculiar manner and could not be classified. They flourish free and unlimited, develop and populate space with the magic figures of ancient Menades and Satyrs, flowers and totems, united in the impetuous dance of eternal Nature’s transformation. Then suddenly turns to a different direction and from the world of fantasy and myths brings us back to reality, seen, felt and expressed in a wise, but cruel riddle. This complicated, often contradictory, artistic micro-cosmos is pierced by the impulse of dreams, by the rational attitude of knowledge and by the vision of the inmost secrets of Creation.

Diverse in their meaning, Lyutakov’s sculptures differ in their forms as well. They vary from light, open-air, moving, biomorphic forms to heavy, solid monoliths, reminding of prehistoric statues. The wide range of sculptural methods does not spoil the unity and integrity of artist’s style. His sudden and bold compositions coincide with the deliberately sought artistic provocations, referring to different historic periods. Thus his “Last Supper” suggests analogy to contemporary “heroes” and events and his “Axes” are transformed into a complex, unusable, surrealistic apparatus. This “ready-made” of ours unites past and future and brings to mind the thoughts about our origin and aims. This composition expresses the human sadness for the “Lost Paradise” in the techno-epoch.

Each new theme is a challenge and stimulus for Stefan to widen his artistic views and to search for new inexperienced opportunities. There are no limitations in genres or themes for his sculptures. Contrary to logic in sculpture even the rain – the natural phenomenon, through which water passes from one physical condition into another, Lyutakov succeeded to recreate into a composition full of life and sentiments. He uses this play component, when he creates his armour-plates, urns and animals but using it in another context.

The problem of movement Stefan Lyutakov solves in two directions. Since his early works he mastered all known ways to express movement in sculpture – from the position of the body, the gate and the gestures to the architectonic balance of masses and forms. Later, in 1980s he found the possibilities of kinetic elements in sculpture. Nowadays Stefan strings the figures in the composition to emphasize the contrast between the inner strength of the compact form and the expressiveness of the details. The sense of inner tension of forms turns into real movement of sculpture’s components.

Stefan Lyutakov masters precisely not only space but matter as well. His choice of materials depends on his ideas and he succeeds to reveal the most delicate vibrations of bronze figures, the resonance of ceramic forms, the feeling of eternity enclosed in a stone monolith. The figure of “The Horse” is firmly rooted to the ground, but light reflections play on its smooth, glassy surface and remind the nervous shiver of animal’s muscles.

The art of Stefan Lyutakov is mature, wise and complete. It surprises with the power of its suggestions, with its noble ideas and emotions, with the opulence and the expressiveness of the sculptural forms.