Images in print graphics are the result of a long and somewhat secret pro-cess. The labour accompanying the development of the graphic idea is hardly associated with artistic work. The work’s metamorphoses during the different phases of the technology remain concealed for the viewer who observes and values the final art product – the graphic imprint.
The question why some artists prefer the complex process of graphic techniques to the direct representation in order to express their personal conception of the world touches on the very essence of graphic art. The exhibition at the Sofia City Art Gallery displaying selected works from the graphic collection of the Gallery suggests different answers to this question. More than 190 works of 80 artists show the dynamic development of print graphics in Bulgaria from the middle of the 18th century to the first decades of the 21st century. The exhibition gives a broad picture of the changes that have occurred in the way graphics has been perceived from the Revival to present days demonstrating the relation between various technological techniques and their artistic equivalent.

The exhibition shows works of some of the first print makers during the Bulgarian Revival such as Georgi Hr. Klinkov, Anastas Karastoyanov, Dimitar Shterev, and Nikola Obrazopisov; emblematic artists for the Bulgarian graphics such as Vasil Zahariev, Pencho Georgiev, Nikolay Raynov, Veselin Staykov, Pavel Valkov, and Peter Morozov; as well as some of the highest achievements of Bulgarian graphics in the second half of the 20th century in the works of Todor Panayotov, Anastasya Panayotova, Rumen Skorchev, Ivan Ninov, Stoimen Stoilov, Stoyan Tsanev, Maria Duchteva, Milko Boyadzhiev, Hristo Kardzhilov, Yavora Petrova and many others.

A catalogue of the exhibition is available as well.