The aim of “Action: Contemporary Art” is to enrich the “Contemporary Art and Photography” collection of Sofia Art Gallery and to stimulate the most innovative trends in Bulgarian art. It is the gallery staff’s deep conviction that the mission of the museum is to follow, choose and preserve the best examples of both the past and present art history. The absence of a Museum of contemporary art makes this function even more necessary under the existing circumstances. For more than 20 years several generations of artists have been working in the field of the modern means of expression without their works being placed in museum collections. This disconcerting fact makes us undertake more active steps towards the preservation of this particular art.

After the exhibitions of Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova and Boryana Dragoeva in 2004 and 2005, Sofia Art Gallery is now showing the donation of artist Sasho Stoitsov. The "Waterfall" installation includes acrylic board plastic pieces, drawings, oils and prints.

Sasho Stoitzov’s name (b. 1952) is among the most renowned ones in the history of contemporary Bulgarian art. Having started his career as a painter he was among the first artists to respond to the changes in the late eighties of the 20th century. His works dating from that time are among the classics of the Bulgarian avant-garde. Sasho Stoitzov is one of the few artists whose name is associated with the notion of Soc-Art.

Since 1998 the artist has been living and working in New York. After a few years’ break Sasho Stoitzov made a striking comeback to his homeland first with the "Naturally" exhibition in the National Art Gallery in 2004 and then with the "Waterfall"
exhibition (first shown in Solers Gallery in 2005).

With "Waterfall" Sasho Stoitsov has tried to create a minimalist depiction of nature and in a specific, unobtrusive yet expressive manner to convey the sense of elemental power and authenticity.

Sofia Art Gallery and the 8th of March Group present: REFLECTIONS MULTIPLIED Adelina Popnedeleva, Alla Georgieva, Anna Hen-Yossifova, Elena Karamihailova, Elisaveta Konsoulova-Vazova, Princess Evdokia, Mariela Gemisheva, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Nevena Gancheva, Nina Kovacheva, Silvia Lazarova, Todorka Bourova, Tzana Ivanova-Boyadjieva, Vera Ivanova

08 March 2006 - 07 April 2006

The exhibition is a try at a mirror reconsideration of history. It is a “tête-à-tête”” of two generations of lady artists: the first “bunch” of graduates from art academies in Bulgaria who advocated the right of the “fair sex” to deal seriously with art, and artists who in late 20th century understood art as an avenue to convey messages and to provoke public opinion.

The mirror approach in the construction of the exhibition is not a haphazard choice. First, the mirror is an attribute, which is invariably associated with the female principle. Second, the mirror is a common motif in the pictures of the lady artists from the early 20th century whereas the series of self-portraits from the end of the century just allude to it. Third, the mirror carries divine and magic characteristics that are typical of art and women alike. Fourth, speculum (the Latin word for mirror) is a gyno examination instrument, which is interpreted by Luce Irigaray as a symbol of the male penetration into the opposite sex based on the idea of “nonexistence” and cavity. This is how feminism is incorporated into the subject. Fifth, the mirror refers to thinking because of the etymology of the word speculum – from speculor meaning “to speculate” in the sense of “to think” or “to reflect”. This adds to the ambition of the provocative nature of the exhibition. Last but not least the speculum is associated with a spectacular performance (spectaculum), which is the quintessence of any exhibition.

Probably the opposition (or juxtaposition) seems audacious from the perspective of the tolerant theory of art. However, almost seventy years and many other lady artists are intervening between these two generations… The contrast is deliberate as sometimes it best expresses the essence and, moreover, the approach has its raison d'être. The two groups of artists have many things in common. The former protested and asked to attend the nude painting classes in the Art Academy, to have their artworks displayed in general exhibitions side by side with the works of artists from the opposite sex, to organize their own exhibitions and to be treated in a serious way. The latter tried to raise taboo questions that for many years before them were unuttered in the guise of fear and inertia. The former were trained abroad and brought home the trends of Impressionism and Expressionism. The latter experimented with media and means of expression that previously were not employed in Bulgarian art. As regards the subject matter, the affinity is undeniable: both groups are definitely introspective. Self-portrait appears to be the commonest choice. Understandably, the reasons are far from being identical. In the early 20th century the self-portrait stood for growing self-confidence and self-consciousness. At the end of the century the self-portrait was the vehicle of inner drama and anxiety and raised many questions. The exhibition seeks to highlight the similarities and dissimilarities in the attitude to the still life, the male nude body and the portrait. In fact the real mirror is the spectator who is the “looking glass” of destinies, ambitions and achievements that, while being distant from each other in time, are kindred in a deeply intrinsic way.

Are reflections possible in this parade of mirrors? Will it be possible to catch the image or will the image dissolve and disappear into the infinity of variations? We count not on the categoricalness achieved but on diversity. The purpose of the exhibition is to multiply the reflections and to make the diversity, intricacy and even confusion of the reflections provoke a discussion.

Maria Vassileva
Exhibition Curator

GENKO GENKOV

17 February 2006 - 19 March 2006

Genko Genkov is one of the most eminent Bulgarian artists known for his striking personality and rebellious spirit. His last one-man exhibition was held in 1993. Today, thirteen years later, Sofia Art Gallery is displaying some works of his created in the period between 2002 and 2006. The exposition includes portraits and landscapes in oil and water-colour which show the latest stage in his artistic development.

Genko Genkov has created mainly landscapes which are notable for the specific style of their author – clearly defined volumes, vivid colours and relief surfaces. In the early years of his artistic career the author used to give preference to the darker range of colours. His landscapes represent people and animals. In the course of time the integrated colour splashes and the characteristic intense warm colours gradually appeared. A tree, a house, a mountain or a path in the open serve as centre of the composition in his paintings. Genko Genkov prefers painting from life and often depicts Sofia neighbourhoods or the outskirts of the villages of Roudartsi and Dragoil.

Through the years the artist has experimented with a variety of methods and techniques of painting. In the 70ies he explored the potential of the different materials, applying oil as water-colour, treating the surface with sand or replacing the brush with a knife. In the 90ies he would use pigments reminding of the ceramic glaze. His works reveal elements of the art of post-impressionism and fovism.

The works exhibited in Sofia Art Gallery represent the best of Genko Genkov as an artist. Painted with boldness and imagination they prove time and again that he is among the most unique and intriguing Bulgarian artists.

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Genko Genkov was born in 1923 in the village of Choba near Karlovo. He grew up in Bourgas. He finished Secondary School for Classic Languages in Bourgas. In 1948 he graduated from the National Academy of Arts under Professor Dechko Ozounov. His first one-man exhibition took place in 1965 and in 1973 there was a retrospective exhibition on the occasion of his 50th anniversary. In 1972 he was conferred the Cyril and Methodius Order of Merit Third Class. His last one-man exhibition was held in 1993.

STOYAN RANGELOV Paintings and Drawings

19 January 2006 - 12 February 2006

The name of Stoyan Rangelov is barely known to the general Bulgarian public. The artist was born in 1911 in the village of Draintsi near Trun. In 1929 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. In 1934 he graduated from the Painting Department under Prof. Nikola Marinov and the Decorative Arts Departmant under Prof. Nikolai Rainov. Upon graduating with honours, Stoyan Rangelov earned a specialization scholarship and left for Germany and Italy. He died in Sofia in 1949.

Stoyan Rangelov used to work as an army artist for the Military Geographic Institute in Sofia. He is known for his works of oil, water-colours, drawings, graphics, caricatures and monumental decorations. His most active period as an artist was in the thirties and forties. During his short life he held eight one-man exhibitions in Sofia and around the country. His work is found in the permanent collections of the National Art Gallery, Sofia Art Gallery, the Museum of Military history in Sofia and private collectors.

The current exhibition includes about 50 works – paintings, water-colours, drawings and documents. The exposition aims at presenting an ignored artist and popularizing his artistic heritage. The works at display – portraits, landscapes and compositions – embody the spirit of a controversial and dynamic period of Bulgarian history. They impress with romantic and nostalgic moods, expressive solid forms and water-colour blendings with pasty brush strokes. The “Native” and the “European” intertwine in an eclectic way thus building up the artistic image of Stoyan Rangelov.

Vaska Emanouilova. The Life of Form Exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the artist

22 December 2005 - 28 February 2006

Vaska Emanuilova is one of the milestones of modern Bulgarian sculpture. She is the first waman-sculptor to leave a blazing trail in our art. Vaska Emanuilova achieved impressive results in portrait, nude, genre composition and history-inspired scenes. Her choice to work mainly with terracotta made this material the emblem of her art. In addition the artist produced scores of drawings and watercolors.

On 4 February 1985 Vaska Emanuilova made a donation comprising 90 statutes, 48 watercolors and 35 drawings to the Sofia Art Gallery. In the previous year the collection was on display at a branch of the Sofia Art Gallery known as the Vaska Emanuilova Permanent Exhibition at 9 Shesti Septemvri Street in Sofia. Unfortunately ten years later restitution claims shut down the gallery.

To mark the artist’s birth centenary the Sofia Art Gallery is organizing a grand retrospective, which presents the donation, and works that are possessed by the National Art Gallery and the Studio-Collection Svetlin Roussev. The exhibits comprise 107 statues, a selection of drawings and watercolor paintings and authentic documents concerning the artist. The Erotic Series that has been unknown until recently is also there. The focus of the exhibition are the portraits of Vaska Emanuilova painted by famous Bulgarian painters Stoyan Venev, Ivan Nenov, John Popov, Rouska Marinova, Kiril Petrov, Mina Ivanov, Donka Konstantinova, Nenko Balkanski, Lyuba Palikareva, Svetlin Roussev. Among the exhibits are pictures by the painter Kiril Petrov that are part of Vaska Emanuilova’s donation.

Members of the team that organized the exhibition are: Slava Ivanova, Vessela Hristova-Radoeva, Maria Vassileva and Marin Marinov. Irena Gerassimova and Simeon Simeonov did the conservation and restoration of the works.

A 134-page catalogue with a color album, a black-and-white catalogue section, a biography chapter, a bibliography part and appendices was released to commemorate the exhibition.

Co-organizers of the exhibition are:
National Museum of Bulgarian Fine Art
State Cultural Institute under the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Studio-Collection Svetlin Roussev

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Vaska Emanuilova was born on 25 December 1905 in the village of Komshtitsa, Godech district. 1922-1927: student at the State Art Academy, painting classes under the tuition of Prof. Tzeno Todorov and sculpture classes under the tuition of Prof. Ivan Lazarov. 1927-1944: works on display at the general art exhibitions organized by the Union of Artists Societies in Bulgaria. From 1927 onwards her works were displayed at practically all exhibitions of lady artists. She was a founding member of the Society of New Artists in 1931. In 1939 she spent three months in France with a scholarship provided by monsieur Belain (secretary at the French Legation in Sofia). From 1944 onwards she had her works exhibited at practically all General Art Expositions arranged by the Union of Bulgarian Artists. Her domains were tabletop sculpture, easel painting, and larger-than-life sculpture in plaster of Paris, bronze and terracotta. Her preferences were the portrait, the nude, the history scenes and genre painting. She died in Sofia on 11 July 1985.

Vaska Emanuilova’s works are now possessions of: the National Art Gallery, the Sofia Art Gallery, the Art Galleries in Plovdiv, Rousse, Varna, Dobrich, Bourgas, the Art Gallery "Donation Svetlin Roussev" in Pleven, private collections in and outside Bulgaria.

Luben Stoev. Social Services Kitchen Installations and drawings

15 December 2005 - 15 January 2006

Luben Stoev was born in 1939 in Sofia. In 1963 graduated Graphic Art from the Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden, under Professor Leah Grundig. He has been working in the field of graphics, drawings, painting and installation.

At the end of the 60’s Luben Stoev becomes part of the Bulgarian artistic life. Since the70’s he has had solo exhibitions abroad – in Austria, Germany, Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Alger and more.

The painter has numerous awards and scholarships. In 1972 he was awarded the Sofia Prize, in 1984 – the great prize of the International Biennale in Bistritza of Bansko, the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and in 1987 and 1989 – The ‘Man and Labor’ award. In 1984 Stoev won a scholarship of Cite des Arts International, Paris, in 1985 of the ‘Bermansgluk’ Gelzenkirchen, Germany, and in 2004 of the Zusman and Culture Contact Foundation, Austria.

Luben Stoev is author of the cycles ‘Third World’, ‘Market Space’, ‘Transformations’, and ‘Outsiders’.

The exhibition at Sofia Art Gallery presents the „Soup Kitchen” cycle. The exposition features installations and large-scale drawings and forms part of the „Soup kitchen” projects of BNP Pariba Bulgaria.

Educated at a German school of arts, the author is addicted to the aesthetics of Eexpressionism. It is reflected in the context of Bulgarian reality. The impact of the works is subdued to contrast. The dissonant opposition finds expression in the monochromatic gamut, standing for misery and polyphonic colorfulness of actual objects, metaphorically reflecting luxury and opulence.The contrast is shocking, provocative and even repelling. It implements the painter’s objective – make us think about it.

On 19 December 2005 from 6 p.m. at Sofia Art Gallery a charitable auction will take place, organized by BNP Pariba and Sofia Art Gallery.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM CHINA painting, drawings, objects, calligraphy

08 December 2005 - 16 December 2005

The works of Gredi Assa, Asadur Markarov and Valery Chakalov were created particularly for the present exhibition “Photographs” from China. They express a creative reaction to what was felt and seen in China – the peculiar mystical scenery, the mentality of Chinese people, their smiles and diligence, the magic of Chinese art – calligraphy, painting, black and white drawing, sculpture, printings.

Bright shop windows, lights, huge boulevards and buildings, mysterious small shops, giant cities and little stone towns, rice fields, strange flowers, dragons, lions, fans, odd clothes, lanterns – all bathed in the shades of red and gold. Visualization of the metaphorical, of the contradictory, of philosophy. Visualization of the magic of the East.

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The Second International Biennale was held from 20 September to 20 October, 2005 in Beijing, China. The following three Bulgarian projects of three art curators were invited to participate: the project of Rumyana Konstantinova with the artist Ognyan Tsekov, the project of Chavdar Popov with the artist Bozhidar Boyadzhiev, and the project of Adelina Fileva with the artists Gredi Assa, Asadur Markarov and Valery Chakalov.

milkopavlovthelargesizedrawings 2012-2030

25 November 2005 - 16 December 2005

In 2056 together with the celebration of 100 years of Milko Pavlov an attempt for the reconstruction of milkopavlovthebigpictures 2012-2030 from November 2005 at the Sofia Art Gallery in Sofia City, Bulgaria. The first real time discrepancy dates from the autumn of 2004. Images from 2019 and 2026 appeared as early as December and in January 2005, pictures from 2012 appeared and then followed more, dated 2016 and 2029. Thus, Resentimenti and Navigare appeared. In addition to them, parts of the Anamnesia cycle from 2003 are shown.

As amazing it may sound, this is an attempt to pull one event, announced in advance, into the present. The painter poses questions about the present-future relation, which in the physical world are hard to break through, but on the other hand, we have the liberty to manipulate them in the world of ideas. The ‘present-future discrepancy’ method is widely popular in science fiction which impressed the author in his childhood, and what is more-contemporary physics cannot provide solutions for the time factor. One part of human thinking is not at all an attempt to construct the indescribable and the unreachable – an engine for the development of homo sapiens, as opposed to homo shopping. Causing future events is a willing or unwilling human strategy and the author realizes the relativity of such undertaking in the present exhibition.

The art technique of frottage became popular in the 30s of the 20th century - at school, almost all of us had fun scribbling with a pencil on the school-desk and thus, copying the traces left by our schoolmates. On a large scale, the same technique creates completely different results.

The first graphite frottage exhibition called “The Paradise Borders” was in 1998 at the XXL Gallery in Sofia, followed by the ‘Imitations’ exhibition at the АТА Center of Contemporary Art in 2000 and “Anamnesia” at the OMZ Gellary in Düsseldorf in 2003.

The present exhibition is the fourth one into this direction. 10 large-scale graphite on paper pictures are exhibited. They play with scenes from a black &white movie that is not produced as the painter purposely uses the big screen format. The viewer can only wonder which the movie is. The one that starts from the edge of the paper sheet or the one of everyday life. The sheets can be regarded as pieces from the future shown today. This is confirmed by the pictures with dates existing only in theory.

Do not think that this is just a joke. A contract, stipulating that such exhibition will happen in the year of 2056 is undergoing elaboration, for which purpose the pictures will be left at the Sofia Art Gallery.

LYUBEN GENOV. ACOUSTICALLY

17 November 2005 - 11 December 2005

For the past few years, Lyuben Genov has influenced the Bulgarian artistic space with his audacious abstract compositions, preference for complicated hues of color and large-scale canvasses letting him to completely spread out his ideas.

His works featured in the present exhibition have been created especially for it. They are a new stage in his development as a creator- deeper and insightful, drenched with multilayer experiences and emotions.

Lyuben Genov was on 18 November 1966, in the town of Oryahovo.He graduated from the School of Arts in the town of Troyan and in 1991- from the ’Saint Ivan Rilski’ Institute of Pedagogy in the town of Dupnitza, where he studies painting under Ivaylo Popov. In 1993 he became one of the first students of the 'Julius Pascin’ private academy in Sofia, major Painting in the class of Dolores Dilova and Nikolay Maistorov, and in 1996 completes the Master class of the academy. He has been a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists since 2001, Department of Painting.
He has been actively interested in painting since the beginning of the 90’s, has been carrying out numerous solo exhibitions and participating in joint and national exhibitions, biennales and triennials of painting and in curators’ projects.
He received an award from the National Painting Contest, whose theme was ‘The Bulgarian Spiritual and Material Culture- Our Identity to Europe’, in 2001. In 2002 won the contest by the Union of Bulgarian Artists for his stay and work at Cite Des Arts in Paris.
His works are owned by private collectors in Bulgaria and abroad – The USA, England, France, Hungary and more.

ASEN VASSILIEV 105 years from his birth painting, drawings, documents

10 November 2005 - 16 December 2005

Asen Vassilliev was born on 2 June 1900, in the town of Kustendil. In 1925, he graduated painting from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia under the Professors: Dimitar Gyudjenov, Nikola Ganushev, Stefan Ivanov and Nikola Marinov. 1926 – 1940: works as a secondary school teacher in Berkovitza, Shumen and Sofia. 1957 – 1959: an assistant-director of the Institute of Art History at the BAS /Bulgarian Academy of Science/. Since 1974 –Professor at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia; member of the ‘Union of Contemporary Art’ and one of the founders of the Union of Bulgarian Artists in Bulgaria.

As an artist, Asen Vassilliev works in the field of compositions with everyday objects and historic compositions, portrait, landscape and still-life. His works can be seen in all museums in Bulgaria and in collections in Germany, France, Romania, Serbia amd Monte Negro, and more. As an art-historian, he works predominantly in the field of Bulgarian Revival. He also takes part in numerous complex scientific expeditions of the BAS. He cooperates in magazines dedicated to art and archaeology. He is the author of 34 monographs and books and of large number of articles.

The exhibition features painting, graphics and drawings, owned by the Sofia Art Gallery, The National Art Gallery, the ‘Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora’ Art Gallery in the town of Kustendil, Art Gallery in the town of Stara Zagora, private collections and documents of the Central State Archive and the ‘Ivan Duichev’ center of Slavic- Byzantine research.

The objective of the present exhibition is to call to remembrance of the work of the eminent artist and art-historian Asen Vassilliev, who left a deep trace in Bulgarian culture.

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