The exhibition is dedicated to the art historian Violeta Vasilchina (1945–2024)
To leaf through the pages of the cultural periodicals from the period 1944–1989 is to enter a labyrinth of terminology: applied, decorative, monumental, plastic. Within this semantic cloud lies one of the most dynamic and paradoxical branches of Bulgarian artistic culture. Following its near-complete disappearance with the decline of the Secession movement, interest in decorative art was revived in the mid-1950s. A turning point came with the 1957 paper by the Russian art historian Alexander Saltikov, which challenged the dogmatic requirement for “lifelike verisimilitude” and declared stylisation and geometric ornament to be legitimate artistic forms. Saltikov was unequivocal: applied art is not a domestic trifle, but a cornerstone of national culture. By 1960, however, reality told a different story. The renowned ceramicist Georgi Bakardzhiev observed that everything was proceeding “under its own steam”. In his critical analysis, he outlined the drama of the transition: the folk craftsman, whose work had sprung directly from the national spirit, had been supplanted by mass industry. Industry was generating new forms, but these were devoid of authentic Bulgarian expression. Bakardzhiev insisted that artists must step out of their studios and become the “creative vanguard” of industry, in order to resist kitsch and aesthetic confusion.
The 1960s and 1970s became decades of intense international exchange. Exhibitions from Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland and Ghana broadened the horizons of Bulgarian artists. This dynamism led to an institutional breakthrough – in 1972, the foundations of the National Gallery for Decorative and Applied Arts were laid. Its history, however, was marked by paradox: despite vast state resources and active acquisitions, the institution never found a home of appropriate scale. The Arsenal building was lost through administrative inertia, and the rich collection remained locked away in storage depots, far from the public eye. It was against this backdrop of institutional ambition and architectural want that the Ivan Milev Award was born in 1976. The idea had first been mooted the previous year by the Mayor of Kazanlak, Stancho Koev, and was taken up by Svetlin Rusev and Dechko Uzunov. The purpose was clear: to immortalise the name of Ivan Milev through the recognition of significant contemporary achievement in the decorative and applied arts. The terms of the award provided not only for a prize of 1,000 leva, but also for the mandatory acquisition of the winning work for the collection of Art Gallery – Kazanlak. In this way, the award became a powerful instrument for building a local collection of national importance.
The first recipient, in 1976, was Mara Yosifova, for her tapestry Song. Her style is a synthesis of contemporary plastic sensibility and the deep traditions of Bulgarian folklore. In the decade that followed, the award went to iconic figures: Evgenia Racheva (1978), Dimitar Stankov (1979), Dechko Uzunov (1980), Ekaterina Getsova (1982), Vladimir Ovcharov (1983) and Rositsa Todorova (1985). The chronology of the award was then interrupted in the mid-1980s, when attention shifted to a new prize in the name of Ivan Penkov – the other great figure from Kazanlak, Milev’s collaborator in the theatre workshop. Born in the same neighbourhood in the same year, and sharing in the theatrical illusions of the National Theatre, they remained forever united in the memory of the city and of Bulgarian art.
This exhibition does not offer an interpretation, but an invitation to wander. It invites us on a journey through a not-so-distant world of objects, in which the boundaries of normative socialist aesthetics were systematically torn asunder. Here we encounter the possibilities of matter in its purest form – clay, wool, hemp, enamel. This space offers an opportunity for personal reflection on a period in which the applied arts were simultaneously a state priority and a terrain for bold experiment. Moving among these objects, we touch upon a primal honesty of form that today seems almost forgotten. These structures require no validation from state policies or contemporary readings. They exist as pure essences, preserving within themselves an intuition for the eternal. For English translations of the wall and label texts, see this page.
This event is part of the gallery’s cultural calendar marking the 125th anniversary of the founding of the art collection of Art Gallery – Kazanlak.
The exhibition is part of Art Gallery – Kazanlak’s project ‘Applied, Fine, Contemporary – a series of three exhibitions’, funded under an agreement with the Ministry of Culture – ref. RD 11-06-29/01.04.2026. The project is realised in partnership with the teams of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, Georges Papazov Art Gallery – Yambol and Iskra Municipal Library – Kazanlak.
General media partner
Bulgarian National Radio
