The years following the Liberation of Bulgaria were a complex time of major changes. Building the modern Bulgarian state was a dynamic multidirectional process including debate on home and foreign policy, the introduction of new legislation, the establishment of government, political and cultural institutions, as well as the development of an economic, educational and cultural infrastructure.
After laying the foundations of higher education (establishment of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski in 1888), statesmen focused on the development and promotion of art. The then minister of public education, Constantine Velichkov, and the members of the Association for Supporting the Arts joined forces to draft a bill in the mid-1890’s. After heated debate on the significance of art education in Bulgaria, a law was enacted on 17 February 1896 making provisions on the establishment of the State School of Drawing (now the National Academy of Arts, Sofia).
One hundred and twenty-five years later, the Sofia City Art Gallery offers a glimpse of the faculty and students who laid the foundations of Bulgarian art and devoted their lives to developing and nurturing taste in art. The first class of the State School of Drawing comprised 48 students admitted on competitive basis. Most of them are presented by the exhibition with more than 80 works. Alongside the drawings and first watercolour attempts of well-known artists such as Alexander Bozhinov, Andrey Nikolov, Asen Belkovski, Gospodin Zhelyazkov, Dimitar Daskalov, Dimitar Radoykov, Marin Georgiev Ustagenov, Petko Manchev, Stefan Ivanov, Haralampi Tachev and Tseno Todorov, viewers will also get to see works by less known artists, namely Bogdana Fischieva Ivanova, Boris Blaskov, Nikola Tonev, Mihran Garabetyan, etc. The Museum Collection of the National Academy of Arts, which features the early work of numerous Bulgarian artists, reveals the beginning of an artist’s journey. The uneven edges of the drawings also show the signatures of the teachers, namely Ivan Markvichka, Otto Horeishi, Yaroslav Veshin, Anton Mitov, Ivan Angelov, Boris Schatz, the latter being just part of the faculty whose work is presented by the exhibition.
The National Academy of Arts is a main partner on the project.
Works featured in the exhibition belong to the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, art galleries and museums of the cities of Vratsa, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Svishtov, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Shumen, and Yambol, as well as private collectors. A bilingual exhibition catalogue is available.