The exhibition commemorates the 110th anniversary of the birth of renowned sculptor Vaska Emanuilova. Her aesthetical views and presence helped her shape her signature style and earn a prominent, well-deserved place in the history of Bulgarian sculpture. The major part of her artistic output comprises accomplishments in the nude body genre. Throughout her whole career as an artist, which spanned close to six decades, she would keep going back to this timeless theme – the human body at its most expressive, namely when in the nude. Vaska Emanuilova rediscovered it for herself, as well as for Bulgarian art through innovation. For her, the nude body is a storyline reflecting not only physical characteristics or formal attention to detail, but also something more profound, related to spirituality and life itself.

Works belonging to this genre created during various periods have been added to the SCAG collection through the years, thus building an intriguing collection. In 1999, the City Gallery presented the “Nude Body” exhibition, which featured numerous paintings and several sculptures.

The current exhibition features a substantial part of the artworks belonging to the “Nude Body” genre, stored at the SCAG “Sculpture” and “Graphic Arts” departments. The exhibition focuses on sculptures and drawings from the period between the 1930’s and the 1980’s, when Vaska Emanuilova created the bulk of her artwork. Also included in the exhibition are works by other Bulgarian artists, some of whom still show interest in the genre. The exhibition features more than 80 artworks from the SCAG collection belonging to the genres of sculpture, drawing, including pastel drawing, and watercolor painting. Viewers will see works by Lyubomir Dalchev, Mara Georgieva, Nikolay Shmirgela, Galin Malakchiev, Pavel Koychev, Thomas Kochev, Spartak Dermendzhiev, Pencho Dobrev, Emil Popov, Kiril Mateev, etc. The exhibition also features a presentation of drawings by Gredi Assa, Marco Behar, Svilen Blazhev, Georgi Pavlov – Pavleto, etc., both as an idiosyncratic counterpoint and a parallel, complementing storyline. Works featured in the exhibition reflect varying artistic approaches and styles, thus demonstrating the diversity of artistic expression in the domain of visual arts.