With Prof. Andrey Daniel we spoke about the joys and burdens of talent, and why the ability never to get bored is important. We met at his exhibition The Things Beyond Us (October 8–31 at the Eibank Gallery). The artist displayed seven large format canvasses, each telling a different story with different personages.

One of the most charismatic contemporary Bulgarian artists Andrey Daniel was born on March 28, 1952 in Ruse. He graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, where he teaches painting now. Among the over 30 solo exhibitions in Bulgaria and around the world are the jubilee exhibition Things, Places, People (2002, Sofia), Human Food (2001, Sofia), 5х3+2 or Not Here Not Now (1999, Sofia). He conducts a master class in painting in Korea, he has specialised in Switzerland and France. His works are owned by museums, state and private galleries and collections in Bulgaria and abroad.

Prof. Daniel, many people think that it is an easy job to be an artist. Do you share this view?
An artist is a very general term. If we are talking about a person who paints pictures, it is very hard to call it a profession. It is a lifestyle, an inner need. Of course, in order to practice it you need preparation and serious modern education. But I wouldn’t link the word “artist” with the word “difficult”. It is known that the more easily and elegantly a painting is created, the stronger the impact it has on the viewer. The harder and the more difficult a painting is made, the less there is to look at.

How do you select the students who want to be admitted to the Academy?
There is a traditional academic system of exams. Sometimes our feelings about a certain young man do not get confirmed, the natural talent does not match the necessary level of preparation and they fail to get admitted. But if they are persistent, if they have felt that they need it, they apply again. In my day, when we dreamt about the Academy, we persisted until we got admitted. I have colleagues who entered at the fourth, fifth, sixth attempt. Now just one failure often proves fatal, and the young people set off in different directions.

What are today’s students like?
I am proud of them. Generally the atmosphere in the Academy is good. The people, especially in the last years, who dare to embark on this road, have made their choice; they know that the status of the artist is not the same any more; they take the risk of not living comfortably and at ease. And this choice really deserves respect.

Do you think contemporary artists need to be good managers as well?
I have mixed feelings in this regard. While it is true that now it is fashionable to have art management at the academies, I believe that this is a completely different profession. Very often it turns out that the artists who know about management start conforming with the market, the audience, the conjuncture and the commercial environment too much and just stop being themselves. Therefore, there is a contradiction in these two professions and it is best that different people practice them.

You create real traditional paintings. Have you never been tempted by installations, for example?
I have gone through many different stages. Painting is traditional as far as traditional media are used – oil, canvas, brush. But they are like words in poetry or literature – you can’t do without them. It is the same with us: this is a technique whereby you can express the most modern feelings and image structures. It gets more and more clear that the traditional techniques and methods are pretty universal and express the rather sophisticated essence of our contemporary life.

The installations are just a means of expression, a different impulse to art and a different experience for the artist. I have made attempts in this area but it does not fascinate me enough to dedicate my time to it. In as far as all this could be united in the modern term of conceptual art, I can say that painting, used in a modern way, is a completely conceptual instrument.

Why The Things Beyond Us?
People’s self-confidence has grown in a strange way lately. They think that all events around and inside us are a result from our own efforts, intentions, plans; they think that making our dreams come true or not depends on us alone. This is rather far-fetched. We forget the realities that actually exist inside and outside of us. To a great extent they mould us the way we are. I wanted to draw attention to this, let us not be presumptuous.

The idea of the things beyond us brings forth the opposite thought – how objective and real they are in our minds. To what extent are they a figment of our imagination, the fruit of fulfilled dreams, events and nostalgia? There is a reciprocal definition of what’s beyond us and in us due to the human mind that has originated it.

Why do you think that people have greater self-confidence today?
It is always like that when a time of decay comes for a mighty civilisation, the European being one. An illusion appears of comprehensiveness and condescendence to objective reality. These are all risks we should not play with.

One of your paintings is dedicated to Picasso. Why is he important to you?
To me he is one of the most important figures in the art and culture of the 20th century. A teacher of arts to us all, an example of how a man exists in art – making it, developing it, generously giving it out. Generally speaking, after Picasso the world was not the same. I can say that I have learned more from him than from some of my living teachers.

You have learned more by observing life than from the teachers?
The education of a contemporary artist is a very complex process. On the one hand, he has to be able to use the typical and untypical technical art tools, and on the other, to hold an incredible quantity of visions in his head. An enormous collection of videos to help him develop his ideas. Besides, he needs to have a normally broad general knowledge in order to be able to react to the many cultural facts and phenomena around. All these things are important so that – if we assume that the artist has an intense sensitivity – he could provide it with the proper tools. Many people are sensitive but since they do not know how to express themselves this sensitivity remains at the level of conversations with friends. It cannot become art. This is why we need to know how and to be able to bring out our on the whole normal human states and turn them into works of art.

To what extent is character important, as compared to talent, in order to make art?
Character plays a great, primary role. Not only our time but all times are horribly cruel to what we call talent. The mortality of talent is very popular in all times, epochs and places in the world. Character plays a primary role for the survival of this talent, for its cultivation. You need a certain character to make art; you have to bear the burden of your talent. It is a huge joy, a huge sense of freedom. But at the same time it involves great disappointments, caused by lack of understanding, by personal failures that one has to overcome trusting in oneself and with faith in the future. You need a character for this.

Have you ever thought of living abroad?
There was such a period in the very dawn of democracy around 1990. I was younger and I could imagine – for a short while – some kind of future outside Bulgaria. Moreover, given my Jewish descent, I had a logical alternative to go to Israel but I got over it quickly – I gave it up definitely. I realized I was deeply connected with the Bulgarian public. Here I had become an artist thanks to its attention. My dialogue with it proved to be more important than some seemingly better social status, which is absolutely doubtful as it turned out subsequently. Twenty years later I see that my colleagues who left so bravely have not achieved their dreams of social status and world fame. I think I have made the right choice because I can do what I love and want – I have the contact with the students at the Academy and the work in my atelier. 

Do you think that one has to be famous abroad, to sell outside Bulgaria, in order to be a fulfilled artist?
These are different kinds of ambitions. I don’t feel the need to prove and fulfil myself. I am saying it openly: I have never felt this need. I had and I have the need to feel the attention to my works – this is enough for me and I think this is fulfilment. Of course, I am happy when people buy paintings because this is how I make my living and feed my family. It makes the purchase some higher form of attention to my work. I don’t need world fame, it’s not important to me. Yavashev is world-famous because he was lucky to get in the stream of certain events and world mass media.

You often bring your son to exhibition openings. Does he take after you?
I hope so. He is still too young to tell whom he takes after. But I have older children – even a grandchild – and looking at my daughter who works in theatre and literature, at my elder son – he is a musician, I flatter myself to find resemblances. I hope little Marko too will embark on this road some day.

What was your childhood in Ruse like?
A very important period though short. In Ruse I spent my first seven years. My memory is bright, my whole concept and feeling of a town comes from Ruse. This is the first urban town in Bulgaria; it bears the marks of European architecture. It is wonderful to be born in the house where your father was born, to climb the trees he has climbed before you. To have a grandmother who takes care of important treats and pleasant emotions. This is such a nice feeling that long after I became an artist I had what to tell in my paintings, but I have already, as they say, caught up with my age…

You make an exhibition after each of your journeys. You tell stories in your paintings. Which one is the most beautiful, which is the saddest…
Very interesting things have happened to me during many of my journeys round the world. I was lucky to step on the two opposite coasts of the Pacific – to look at America from South Korea and at South Korea from California. In this enormous world there were very strong impressions. My last journey, very emotional to me, was to Egypt. It was especially exciting for me – an artist with academic education and knowledge of art history – it is a very strange experience to see such an ancient centre of civilisation. We have learned the facts, we have read and seen photographs in the thick books but when you go there and compare the dull scientific truth and facts to reality, the excitement is tremendous.

I think that the ability never to get bored is the key to a generally happy and lucky life.