Challenge and Recognition

A whole month lasted the exhibition of the great artist Nikolay Panayotov at the National Art Gallery. The artist who has been living for over 15 years torn between Sofia and Paris, filled with his canvasses 4 halls! And confessed: “For me it is a challenge to make an exhibition in this hall because the space carries a nostalgic decay, a palace desolation and unfortunately looks like after a senseless coup d’etat. But when the piece has a certain power and has something to tell the space cannot be an obstacle.” It can even beat in unison with the modern figurative surrealistic canvasses of the artist that are 2 to 3 meters large. “Now I pass from acrylic to oil. I am rediscovering the oil as a richer and juicier modern technique,” Nikolay adds. Enjoying his works we can understand why the most prestigious gallery pays homage to him.

100 Years of the Birth of Stoyan Venev (1904–2004)

The Union of Bulgarian Artists celebrated the occasion with a big jubilee exhibition, opened on November 22 at the National Modern Art Center at 6 Shipka St. in Sofia. The exposition is an extraordinary selection of paintings and drawings of the eminent artist, selected from the funds of the galleries all over the country. The main idea is not to a precise historical review and strict chronology but a more emotional representation of the highest achievements in the artistic path of Stoyan Venev.

Undoubtedly an artist of exceptional talent and creative power, his works have a colorful vitality, pulsating plastic, unique artistic sense and intelligible suggestions that rank him among the classics of Bulgarian painting. But Stoyan Venev is also among the bravest innovators of pictorial art in the period between the two world wars. As a painter of the country life, he finds a new expression of the old daily realism from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th c.

The power of a singular irony can be felt in his art, the living “handwriting” of an author devoted to his work but at the same time engaged with the problems of his time. His paintings attract with the humor or with the pathos of the action, with the peculiarity of the image and the atmosphere, with the richness of tones and the expressiveness of contour, with the singularity of the painting techniques. And by the excitement they arouse you can always tell the great master.

The Portuguese destiny in a unique collection of black and white drawings

30 years since the renewal of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Bulgaria

On December 13, 2004, at the National Gallery for Foreign Art the 30th anniversary of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Portugal and the 29th anniversary of the founding of the gallery were celebrated with the exhibition “30 Years Portuguese Black-and-White Drawing in Bulgaria”.

The event was inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Mario Santos, Ambassador of Portugal to Bulgaria, who thanked the Gallery and the Portuguese Center of Serigraphy for their invaluable cooperation. “For me it is a great pleasure to start my professional activities in Bulgaria with a Portuguese art exhibition,’’ he said. “There is hardly a better occasion to introduce to the Bulgarian public those strong features of our identity that distinguish us and at the same time unite us with humanity than this unity of feelings in the paintings of the greatest Portuguese graphics. You will notice the really unusual contrast between the dark colors from the period right before the Revolution of April 25, 1974, and the shiny colors of our contemporaneity. You will see the presence of the subjects that have marked the Portuguese destiny: of course, the presence of the sea and then the absence of the beloved person…”

The exhibition comprises selected canvasses, indicative of the last 30 years in Portugal. It is a unique collection of about 34 works, which is a real document of the art and culture nowadays uniting the great masters of the 20th century: Carlos Calvet, Cruzeiro Seixas, Jose de Gimarains, Julio Pumar, etc.

The black-and-white drawing fans can also enjoy the works of young Portuguese artists, who have gone through such emblematic movements as neorealism and the surrealism and in an international aspect the pop-art, the new symbolism and the big trends of modern abstract art.

In the Graphic room of the National Gallery for Foreign Art 12 black-and-white works are preserved – 11 author’s prints done through the technique of the colored offort and serigraphy as well as a collage work of leading Portuguese artists. The Portuguese black-and-white drawing collection of the National Gallery for Foreign Art fund is shown for the first time along with the visiting Portuguese exhibition. Despite the fact that they have been created in the 1970s, the graphic prints bear the mark not only of virtuoso professionalism and commitment to the actual social topics but also of a modern artistic conception of the world.

Tatyana Petrova

Beautiful and Refined

On December 7, at Art Alley Gallery the Union of Bulgarian Artists opened the 14th national exhibition Small Format Black-and- White Drawings. Following the tradition, the exhibition is organized around Christmas and already ranks among the significant artistic events at the end of the year.

The presented authors of all creative generations define the image of our graphic art in the last couple of decades, delineate its directions and trends, style and artistic-aesthetic pursuits.

Besides the rich variety of works, the exhibition is also shining with that special charm inbred only in the black-and-white miniature. Combining fineness and artistry, this specific form of the black-and-white drawing embodies lyrical, intimate and spiritual messages that turn it into a wanted and achievable temptation for the admirers of beauty.

Is Industrial Design an Art?

The answer is given by the selection of key products of the French magazine Observeur du design, displayed in December at the Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia. The edition presents the most prominent designs from our everyday surroundings, a fruit of the successful cooperation between enterprises and designers in France. An annual national competition for industrial design is staged for the designers and producers from all economic branches. Some 150 selected designs are nominated to participate in the exhibition in the Town of Science and Industry La Villet in Paris. It is an acknowledgement of the participants’ achievements and an opportunity for the general public to get acquainted with them. Then the exhibits tour the world as an itinerant exhibition.

In 2004 some 60 products selected by Observeur du design were presented in Seoul, South Korea, in Bangkok, Thailand, in Shanghai and Tokyo. The exhibition carried on with its tour across Central Europe and thanks to the cooperation of the French Cultural Institute came to Sofia, too. We saw fabulous items, ranging from means of transport and lighting fixtures to toys and professional equipment. There was also a wedding gown! That is what innovations “the French way” are like!

Christmas bazaar exhibition of traditional craft arts

On December 15, 2004, the Sredetz exhibition hall of the Cultural Ministry hosted a Christmas Bazaar Exhibition, which was organized under the joint initiative of the National Association for Folk Art Crafts and the Ministry of Culture.

Artisans from various branches of art crafts in Bulgaria manifested their esteem for tradition, interpreted in the context of the modern and contemporary, with which they proved crafts can evolve through time.

“Opak” creative association presented unique, handmade ceramics.

Inspired by the beauty, the rich colours and the skilful elaboration of traditional Bulgarian textile, Petko Baramov looks for and collects ancient national costumes and accessories, characteristic of the Bulgarian ethnos.

Radka Angelova is a descendant of the prominent Orcho Voyvoda from Panagyurishte. A master of needlework, she presented garments and cloths, embroidered with the unfailing mastery and taste of the Bulgarian woman.

The master jeweller Lyubo Dudev employs various goldsmith techniques – open work, filigree, fretwork. The style of his artwork represents an avant-garde combination of tradition and modernity.

Anton Antonov manufactures traditional musical instruments, which carry on the sound and the richness of the Bulgarian rhythms through the centuries. The typical colourful diversity of traditional Bulgarian crafts, shown by the unique creative approach of the authors, gave joy to the visitors and added to the festive Christmas mood.

Winter Fairy Tale

On December 18, Circle+ Gallery and Bulgarian Diplomatic Review magazine presented the textile exhibition Winter Fairy Tale to an elite audience with all the exhilaration pertinent to the anticipation of the Christmas season. A tale narrated by seven textile artists – Andriana Marinova, Evelina Pireva, Eli Ikonopisova, Maria Kirkova, Marousya Kalimerova, Natalia Soykova and Tanya Kalimerova, not only for intellectuals and connoisseurs, but also for everyone with a feel for big art. There is so much beauty and kindness in their works that one cannot help succumbing to their magnetism.

The seven magicians engaged in the field of artistic interior textile have gained unchallengeable repute in the contemporary plastic art. Their pieces have been vought by numerous galleries, ministries, banks, public buildings, as well as private collectors in Bulgaria and overseas. Their works, especially in the domain of wall rugs, are unique. A special type of luxury objects, bestowing the interior with glamour and splendor. They are also a sign of prestige for their owners, as the modern textile art is both intricate and costly.

The textile art in Bulgaria was born a long time ago, yet it found a professional and aesthetic expression with the establishment of the Textile Department of the Arts Academy by Prof. Marin Varbanov in 1959. Ever since the first batch of graduates, a myriad of markedly talented and individualistic artists have completed their studies there, disseminating beauty from Bulgaria worldwide.

Ekaterina Pavlova