An exhibition of Ivailo Petrov marking his 85th birthday anniversary

This exhibition is part of the celebration of Ivailo Petrov’s 85th birthday anniversary and presents our renowned writer from a new perspective. Known to the wide audience for his literary work and acknowledged as one of the greatest contemporary Bulgarian writers, Ivailo Petrov was also a gifted painter. Painting, though left in the shadow of his literary prominence, had always accompanied the development of his versatile personality and expressed the spontaneous nature of his talent. The mastered drawing line, the subtle sense for the typical, the resonant colour , the good-humoured cartoon turn his paintings into a cheerful revelation, into a warm and spiritual confession.
The exhibition in Sofia Art Gallery includes over 60 works of Ivailo Petrov – paintings, drawings and small plastic pieces. The works belong to private collections and most of them have not been displayed so far.

Along with the exhibition opening there will be a presentation of the book Before and After published by Literaturen Forum, which includes autobiographical texts by Ivailo Petrov as well as reminiscences of his life.

The newly instituted award for national literature to the name of Ivailo Petrov will be given for the first time.

The real name of the writer born on 19th January, 1923 in the village of Gyuchedyoluk (now Bdinci), district of Varna, was Prodan Petrov Kyuchukov. He finished secondary school in the town of Dobrich. After 1947 he spent a few semesters studying law at Sofia University. Then he studied for two years at the Art Academy under Iliya Beshkov.

He worked for Radio Sofia, Bulgarski Pisatel Publishing House, Plamuk Magazine, Literaturen Front Newspaper. His first collection of stories was Baptism (1953). In 1961 his novel Ground Swell came out. Among his other works are Wolf Hunt, Confused Notes, Before I Was Born and After. His works have been translated into Belorussian, Chinese, Mongolian, German, Russian, Japanese, Rumanian, French, Polish, Slovenian. He won several awards among which the Grand Prize for overall contribution to Bulgarian literary culture Hr. G. Danov in 2002, the Golden Age Prize for contribution to Bulgarian culture, the St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University Grand Prize for literature and others. Ivailo Petrov died in 2005.

MY JAZZ ICONS Maria Zafirkova Dimitar Traychev Hristo Alexiev

07 March 2008 - 30 March 2008

The project is dedicated to the great names of world jazz. Among the painted are Mahalia Jackson, Count Basie, Elvin Jones, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Sara Vaughan and others.

The three artists use elements of the classical drawing, the cartoon and the poster, relying on the principles fundamental of contemporary graphic design. The authors themselves are jazz fans who work on the representation of different musical products.

Maria Zafirkova (b. 1951) is known to be a delicate painter and an experimenter in the field of materials. Her portraits are marked by a graphic subtlety and moderate lyricism. Dimitur Traichev (b. 1952) is not only a very good graphic designer, master of posters and painter but also a tempted conceptualist. In his excessively expressive portraits he combines “the images of his sound iconostasis”. We know Hristo Alexiev (b. 1950) from his numerous theatrical posters and character sketches. In the portraits of famous musicians he shows his specific rendering of each separate personage.

The exhibition My Jazz Icons is dedicated to one discovery – the jazz singer Radka Toneff (1952-1982). She built up her musical career in Oslo and during her short biography of an artist she managed to win recognition as one of the most famous and legendary names on the contemporary jazz stage. Each of the three artists presents a portrait of the singer.