Exhibitions

Kvadrat 500 Atrium Entrance at 95, Vasil Levski Blvd.
Curator: Martin Kostashki
The fifth edition of the National Gallery project, ‘The Wall’, presents ‘Reflections’, a site-specific installation by artist Filipina Stamenkova.
The mirror is a unique object, and an aspect of a deeply personal experience within the space where we find ourselves. What we see changes as we move—much like the sequence of frames in a film, an experience based on the principle of anamorphosis.
The artist explains: ‘When visitors reach this wall, they see themselves reflected in the mirror and thus occupy a central place in the installation. In the context of architecture and exteriors, mirrors retain the magical ability to bend, distort, expand and transform images and, through them, our perception of those images and our relationship with the living space. A sometimes pleasant, sometimes surprising or even comforting, often strange and confusing experience, the act of capturing oneself in a reflective surface is so fundamental to our continued assessment. The mirrored surface is strangely passive, yet intrusive and energetic, not only because it reflects the environment and the people around but, because of the very nature of its reflective quality, it transforms the way we see the world that surrounds us.’
When viewers see themselves reflected in a work, art immediately inspires a pronounced interest and creates a magical fascination similar to that in the myth of Narcissus.
The scale of the mirrored sculptural installation expands the visual space of the Kvadrat 500 Atrium, adding another aspect to its entry into the inner life of the gallery—by changing it and creating a new space.
The installation was designed and built by Woood Makerspace, a shared workplace for people with ideas who are skilful with their hands, with tools, and who have an aptitude for engineering. A place for bold projects, design developments and creative workshops in ceramics and woodcarving, the atelier is well known for its production in Georgia, Morocco, South Africa, as well as throughout Europe. To this day, a condition for accepting a commission is that it be complex and require brainstorming and creativity. The Woood brand is also popular for its work with the fashion giant Louis Vuitton, for which it has produced various façade and interior installations for the brand’s boutiques in London, Paris, Tokyo, and other cities. In Bulgaria, Woood is widely known for a number of projects relating to urban causes: the Imp-Act Agency’s Christmas decoration, the hidden letters of the Reading Sofia Foundation, as well as for initiatives developing the capital’s tourist image of the, in partnership with Sofia Airport and soSofia.com, the independent platform for city symbols.
The project was made possible with the financial support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500, 4th floor
Alexander Denkov (1925–1972) was an artist with a short lifespan, but an extremely rich, meaningful, and prolific oeuvre. He was most productive in the genres of illustration and book design, although his unabating energy also flowed into cinema and the theatre: he was the scenographer for the theatrical performances ‘The Iron Oil Lamp’ and ‘The Bells of Prespa’; and the production designer of films including ‘The Law of the Sea’, ‘The Sun and the Shadow’, ‘Stars’, and ‘The Five from Moby Dick’. His contribution to the development of science fiction illustration remains significant, while his curiosity for hidden natural beauties and his extreme nature made him one of the pioneers of diving and cave exploration in Bulgaria.
In 1969, Denkov produced his remarkable illustrations for Homer’s epic poem, ‘The Iliad’. Respecting the theory that this art visualised the word, enriching the author’s text, the artist transformed one of the most ancient literary works into images. The illustrations draw the reader into the atmosphere of Hellenic culture. The distinctive iconography and stylistics of the art of that time were interpreted to excellence, yet without being deprived of a personal style and individual expression. Through the contrast of the black lines with the white paper, he built perfect compositions, in which the strokes of differing intensity and density are predominant. This play between airiness and definiteness creates a feeling of dynamics of the image and density of tones and halftones. The works are part of the National Gallery’s extensive graphic stock.
Team
Curator: Dr Tanya Staneva
Restorer: Kristina Beleva
Graphic designer: Dimitrina Nenova
Translation into English: Nigrita Davis
Avgust Spasov
Iliya Shapkaroski

Kvadrat 500
Lyuben Dimitrov is not only a figure notable for his rich oeuvre in Bulgarian decoratively monumental sculpture of the 20th century, but also a kind of school for the synthesis between that sculpture and architecture.
Over 60 works produced by the artist between 1929 and 1986 are to be found in Sofia and around Bulgaria: figurative and decorative sculptural decoration of public buildings, monuments, portraits of famous intellectuals. Between 1939 and 1975, he lectured at the National Academy of Arts.
Institutions in Sofia for which the sculptor worked included the Central Cooperative Bank at 2, Ivan Vazov St. (1929); the Seventh Secondary School at 28, Tsar Ivan Shishman St. (1938); the Bulgarian National Bank (1939); the Ministry of the Interior (1939); the Ministry of Defence (1941–42); the Sts Cyril and Methodius Public Library (1942–43); and the building on the junction of Princess Maria Louisa Blvd. and Exarch Joseph Street (1961). For St Kliment Ohridski Sofia University, he designed the pair of lions at the entrance to the library (1932) and the figural cartouches on the southern (1954) and northern (1979–83) wings. During the major reconstruction of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre between 1972 and 1976, he sculpted the bifigural compositions above the four corners of the viewing tract, the figures for the niches in the side façades and two free-standing allegorical figures for the Balcony I foyer. In 1985, six allegorical figures sheltered in niches were installed on the façade of the then National Gallery of Foreign Art (today, Kvadrat 500).
Among Lyuben Dimitrov’s emblematic works is the bifigural composition titled ‘All Quiet on Shipka’, created for the interior of the ossuary on the historic peak (1957). To celebrate the centenary of the heroic events of August 1877, a decorative wall with relief compositions was completed along the steps leading up to Shipka Peak. A monument to Hadji Dimitar (1961) was also erected in the same region of the Balkan Mountains, in the Buzludzha locality. Other works around Bulgaria include ‘The Surrender of Osman Pasha’, a relief at Yasen Railway Station, near Pleven (1965); the allegorical figure on horseback at the entry point to Gabrovo (1966); the figures on the bridge over the Banska River in Kyustendil (1969); the monument to Ivaylo’s Warriors in the Demir Kapia locality near Kotel (1972); and that of Panayot Volov in the centre of Shumen (1978–84).
The exhibition also features seven easel works owned by the National Gallery, the Sofia City Art Gallery, the Kazanlak Art Gallery, and the artist’s heirs. Several of the listed monumental sculptures will be displayed as photographs.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency
Vessela Christova-Radoeva, exhibition curator

Hall 24, Kvadrat 500
The gallery collection includes twenty-one graphic works by Picasso (1881–1973), thematically linked to his, and other authors’, literary texts, and with personal experiences and insights. They reveal the great artist’s passion for and virtuosity in drawing, achieved through the possibilities of lithography, etching, engraving and aquatint in a free expression of the material, of black and white areas, and strokes.
Between January 1957 and August 1959, adopting the method of automatic writing, Picasso composed the poem, ‘The Burial of the Count of Orgaz’ (El entierro del conde de Orgaz). The title refers to the eponymous painting by the Spanish artist El Greco (1541–1614). At his estate in Mougins, France, in 1966 and 1967, Picasso produced twelve copper plates for etchings to accompany the lyrics. The anthology, with an introduction by Rafael Alberti, was published in 1969 in a limited edition of 263 copies, with 220 containing the original etchings, of which the current exhibition presents seven.
The ‘Sable mouvant’ (Quicksand) Series (1965) includes ten works illustrating a poem of the same title by the poet Pierre Reverdy (1889–1960), of which the gallery possesses four. By participating in this project, Picasso expressed his tribute in memoriam to his great friend and figure in modern literature of the 20th century. The artist destroyed the plates after the print run was completed.
According to Picasso’s biographers, he received an invitation from the poet Louis Aragon to produce a poster for the upcoming World Peace Congress in Paris in April 1949. Thus was born the emblematic dove—one of the brightest symbols of the international peace movement in post-war Europe. This popular colour lithograph, created in 1952, is also exhibited.
The National Gallery is launching a series of exhibitions at Kvadrat 500, with the aim of introducing the public to the richly diverse museum depository for foreign graphics, housing works by Francisco Goya, Eugène Carrière, Auguste Rodin, Henri Fantin-Latour, Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, and Roy Lichtenstein, among many others.

The Palace
Time and again the world is experiencing armed conflicts; they continue to provide a recurring background for numerous decisions, actions and reactions. So different from the notion of ‘culture’, wars and art have co-existed since the dawn of time. Art is a powerful tool for depicting wars, capable of recreating both their grandeur and their devastating consequences depending on the period, the artist’s point of view and the political context.
For this exhibition, the National Gallery has selected works from its collection that reflect the suffering experienced by everyone: by direct participants in those wars, and by their ‘collateral victims’. In this visual narrative, there is no place for scenes of triumph, heroisation or praise of valour. Nor are there the features of a ‘just war’ or a collective will for victory. ‘The Disasters of War’, Francisco Goya’s great and unbiased cycle, produced more than 200 years ago, is the invisible reference point for the selection now on exhibition.
These artworks were created during different periods: they relate to a number of wars, and the experience of their artists was also diverse. Some had themselves participated in acts of warfare, others had witnessed them closely and in real time; for yet others, war changed their lives or took away what was most precious. Through the language of art, the focus is on specific events; the emphasis is on fear and pain, and the depiction not only of destruction, but also of innermost experience, emotional dissonance, psychological trauma. Mythology and history, abstract compositions and symbolic elements express the horror and confusion caused to every person affected by each war.
The works on display were largely created by artists of reputation, but also by those who had rarely taken part even in exhibitions on historical thematics. The images originate from various geographical locations, while the reasons for their creation may remain almost unknown, even forgotten, but indelibly held in the mind. Ultimately, art possesses the power to shape public perceptions of war, foster empathy, and contribute to a dialogue on its causes, consequences, and morality.
Iaroslava Boubnova and Nikolay Ushtavaliiski, exhibition curators.
Media partner: БТА / Bulgarian News Agency