The “Association of New Artists. 80th Anniversary of the Establishment” exhibition is a part of a series of research projects developed by Sofia City Art Gallery in the recent years.
The Association of New Artists played an important role in Bulgarian art in different historical periods. Founded back in 1931, it had a short existence – only until 1944. In that period, the Association managed to get its way and to demonstrate an intense artistic life. The “New Ones” regularly participated in all the all-artist exhibitions, they arranged exhibitions of the Association and implemented interesting public initiatives. The aim of that generation of artists was to set new tasks and problems to our art, to reach new and modern means of expression facing the needs of the spirit of the time when they lived.

The exhibition is a retrospective one, with two major highlights – an art section consisting of over 250 paintings, sculptures and graphic works, collected from the city galleries across the country and from the private collections; and a documentary section which includes a large number of archival and critical materials related to the organizational and artistic life of the Association. In “Vaska Emanuilova” Gallery – the subsidiary of Sofia City Art Gallery, a documentary exhibition is arranged, related to the exhibitions of the New Artists and to the reviews of the critics. The expositions are accompanied by a film program dedicated to the times of the New Ones, to the Association, to some individual artists. Apart from the visual image that is being built through the works of art, through the documents and films – music from those years, selected especially for the occasion, will sound in the halls of Sofia City Art Gallery.

The exhibition aims to present as explicitly as possible the work of the New Artists united by a common creative platform, to reconstruct the artistic path of the Association, to give a more complete idea of the artists’ personal destinies, of the continuity, influences, traditions, spiritual motivations – so that the viewer touches closer to their epoch.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue both in Bulgarian and English languages.

The project was implemented
in partnership with:
The Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
Archives State Agency
Bulgarian National Film Archive,
Bulgarian National Televisionand

With the assistance of:
Sofia City Library
“St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library
National Academy of Arts
“Boris Georgiev” Varna City Art Gallery
“Boris Denev” Veliko Tarnovo City Art Gallery
Dobrich City Art Gallery,
Kazanlak City Art Gallery,
“Vladimir Dimitrov-The Master” Kyustendil City Art Gallery
“Luben Gaidarov” Pernik City Art Gallery
“Iliya Beshkov” Pleven City Art Gallery
Plovdiv City Art Gallery
Popovo City Art Gallery
Ruse City Art Gallery
“Dimitar Dobrovich” Sliven City Art Gallery
Stara Zagora City Art Gallery
Smolyan City Art Gallery
“Nikola Marinov” Targovishte City Art Gallery
“George Papazov” Yambol City Art Gallery
“Svetlin Rusev” Studio-Collection, Sofia
“Svetlin Rusev” Collection-Donation, Pleven
“Nikolay Shmirgela” Studio-Centre, Sofia
“Loran” Gallery and private collectors.

With kind support from:
Allianz – Bulgaria
Association for the Development of Sofia
SiBank
CEZ Bulgaria
Onnig Kyuchyukian
Ventsislav Kadiev
Alberto Staykov
Kolyo Byanov
Georgi Ovcharov
Exhibition team: Adelina Fileva, Milena Balcheva, Svetlin Rusev, Ilinka Chergarova, Marin Marinov, Svetla Georgieva, Stefan Stefanov, Stanislava Nikolova, Plamen V. Petrov, Kristina Dineva, Tanya Staneva, Maria Miteva, Anatoli Mihailov, Kalina Mincheva and Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova.