Sofia-Europe

More about the book

This publication is realized within the framework of the project "SOFIA-EUROPE. Bulgarian Painting (1900-1950) in the Context of European Art". It can be viewed as a catalogue to the exhibition of the same name, organized by the National Art Gallery, Sofia from December 1996 to February 1997. In the exhibition were shown 100 works by sixty of the most prominent Bulgarian painters active during the first half of the twentieth century. The idea behind the exhibition and the project as a whole was to attempt to present and interpret Bulgarian art as an integral part of the contemporary, all-European art process. This meant finding out how the tendencies in the development of European painting during that period were reflected in the stylistic quests and problematics of the Bulgarian school. What were Bulgarian artists sensitive and responsive to? Where did they show character and how were the Central European models refracted in their own work? What was the place of Bulgarian painting in the overall panorama of the international art scene in those years and what was its contribution to the enrichment of European art? It also meant investigating the relationship between 'universal' and 'regional' in its distinctive Bulgarian manifestations. The publication also sets itself the task to popularize Bulgarian painting through its most eminent examples.