September 1923

In September 1923, communists, farmers and anarchists rose against Bulgaria's new government, which had seized power in a coup that June. The army crushed the revolt within about two weeks, and the reprisals that followed killed several thousand people. Ivan Milev painted his response two years later, giving it only that bare date for a title. The same events drew in a man who happened to share his surname, no relation: the poet Geo Milev, whose furious long poem 'September' led to prosecution and, in the spring of 1925, his death in police custody. Set beside that outcry, the painter's answer is deliberately quiet and still. He gave the canvas nothing louder than the date itself.