The year 2022 marks the 130^th anniversary of Atanas Dudulov’s birth, an artist whose name is familiar to art historians yet whose life and work have remained widely unknown and unresearched. Based on the sculptor’s preserved archive and the willingness to attain thoroughness, this study and exhibition present Dudulov’s works in a systematic fashion creating a timeline of his development as an artist. A. Dudulov’s sculptures reflect the directions, trends, ideas and leanings in art at the time. His most active period matches the most dynamic decades on the Bulgarian art scene, namely the time between the two world wars. Drawing on the tradition in Bulgarian art, enriched with a new perspective of developments in European art, exploring native themes and being deeply connected to the people to whom he dedicated so many images, the sculptor created an indisputably diverse body of work in terms of both content and genres. To better understand the artist’s plastic solutions and the ideas behind his sculptures, it is important to consider the latter in their context. Context provides a clearer outline of phenomena and processes on the Bulgarian art scene during the first half of the twentieth century, of trends and directions whose formation and development Dudulov made his contribution to. In view of the above, the exhibition also presents works by other artists who were contemporaries of the sculptor. This curatorial decision allows for intriguing comparisons while revealing important aspects of the development of the language of plastic art in Bulgaria during the first half of the twentieth century.

The exhibition, which features more than 80 works, was brought to life in partnership with the Archives State Agency. Selected works belong to the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, Stanislav Dospevski Pazardhik City Art Gallery, Dimitar Dobrovich Sliven City Art Gallery, Kazanlak City Art Gallery, Ruse City Art Gallery, the National Museum of Literature and private collectors. Besides sculptures by Anastas Dudulov, the exhibition presents works by Ivan Lazarov, Cyril Shivarov, Andrey Nikolov, Mina Ivanov, Pando Kiselinchev, Vasil Zidarov, Kostadin Divchev, etc.