Roumen Gasharov is related to some of the most interesting processes that have taken place in Bulgarian arts in the last several decades. The present exhibition is dedicated to his 70th anniversary and encompasses paintings from all periods of his creative career.

With his canvases, whose major topic is man and his daily routine, Gasharov is constantly challenging the audience and the critics. The ordinary artifacts of everyday life acquire the nature of a tool the author employs to create the modern folklore of an urban type. This ‘tangible’ arsenal Gasharov fits into his oil paintings and collages due to his inherent feeling for the grotesque and the ironic. Pieces of embroidery and lace, fluttering angels and showy shooting galleries, leaflets and newspaper pieces all combine to give rise to the Bulgarian type of pop-art. The markedly naive manner the artist employs has developed into a subtle artistic style. The lyricism his personages invoke, contrary to the expectations, stem from the banal, the kitsch and all that is very close to the manner of the daily routine. The freshness in Gasharov’s canvases comes from the artist’s subtle understanding of man, his feeling for the human soul and his ability to recreate in a concise manner the specific moments of the mass culture that have revealed most vividly throughout the years man and man’s daily life. The artist’s credo: „I love simple beauty and ordinary things”, goes hand in hand with the graceful culture of artistic expression.

Of special interest is the cycle of paintings on topics from Sofia – landscapes, compositions with figures, etc. The author recreates the spirit of the time, imprinting the urban atmosphere in a not too remote past.

The pictures are the ownership of the Sofia Art Gallery, The National Art Gallery, House of Humour and Satire in Gabrovo, the National Palace of Culture, the Art Galleries in Sliven, Veliko Tarnovo and Smolyan, and the author himself.