This exhibition is part of the celebration of Ivailo Petrov’s 85th birthday anniversary and presents our renowned writer from a new perspective. Known to the wide audience for his literary work and acknowledged as one of the greatest contemporary Bulgarian writers, Ivailo Petrov was also a gifted painter. Painting, though left in the shadow of his literary prominence, had always accompanied the development of his versatile personality and expressed the spontaneous nature of his talent. The mastered drawing line, the subtle sense for the typical, the resonant colour , the good-humoured cartoon turn his paintings into a cheerful revelation, into a warm and spiritual confession.
The exhibition in Sofia Art Gallery includes over 60 works of Ivailo Petrov – paintings, drawings and small plastic pieces. The works belong to private collections and most of them have not been displayed so far.

Along with the exhibition opening there will be a presentation of the book Before and After published by Literaturen Forum, which includes autobiographical texts by Ivailo Petrov as well as reminiscences of his life.

The newly instituted award for national literature to the name of Ivailo Petrov will be given for the first time.

The real name of the writer born on 19th January, 1923 in the village of Gyuchedyoluk (now Bdinci), district of Varna, was Prodan Petrov Kyuchukov. He finished secondary school in the town of Dobrich. After 1947 he spent a few semesters studying law at Sofia University. Then he studied for two years at the Art Academy under Iliya Beshkov.

He worked for Radio Sofia, Bulgarski Pisatel Publishing House, Plamuk Magazine, Literaturen Front Newspaper. His first collection of stories was Baptism (1953). In 1961 his novel Ground Swell came out. Among his other works are Wolf Hunt, Confused Notes, Before I Was Born and After. His works have been translated into Belorussian, Chinese, Mongolian, German, Russian, Japanese, Rumanian, French, Polish, Slovenian. He won several awards among which the Grand Prize for overall contribution to Bulgarian literary culture Hr. G. Danov in 2002, the Golden Age Prize for contribution to Bulgarian culture, the St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University Grand Prize for literature and others. Ivailo Petrov died in 2005.