In 2024, the team at Art Gallery Kazanlak presented the exhibition Joy, Sorrow and Hope. 25 Bulgarian Illustrators of Children’s Books in the gallery’s spaces, showing a selection of illustrations made specially for the 61st Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
With the desire to continue the conversation about Bulgarian children’s illustration and the its place in the book, we present the current exhibition, Magic between the pages. The Journey of the Bulgarian illustrated children’s book, which already holds an important place in the country’s cultural life, highlighting both the rich heritage and the contemporary directions in this field while at the same time encouraging young audiences’ interest in books and the visual arts.
The exhibition traces the development of the Bulgarian illustrated children’s book, from its earliest forms to the work of contemporary creators, through a carefully curated selection of publications. The collection offers an interpretation of this development, revealing different approaches, styles and periods and directing attention to the book as a visual and cultural object that is constantly changing and evolving.
During the exhibition, visitors will be able to leaf through books that are rarely seen together, some of them more than a hundred years old. Among them are books illustrated by Ilia Beshkov, Nikola Tuzsuzov and Neva Tuzsuzova, Tonya Goranova, Viktor Paunov, Mila Yaneva-Tabakova, Elena Zhablyanova and many others, with a special place given to the books illustrated by the great artist Yana Levieva – a gesture of homage to her contribution and memory. Also on show within the project is the unpublished book Hush, illustrated by Levieva in 1993 to a poem by Boris Hristov. And once the stroll through the books is over, selected fairy tales can also be heard from a gramophone.
The exhibition is realised with the support of:
National Culture Fund
Sofia Municipality Culture Programme
America for Bulgaria Foundation.
This exhibition would not have been complete without the support of friends, like-minded collaborators, the antiquarian bookshops Alba Books and Nestor Sensini, as well as beloved publishing houses.