The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

100 Years Konstantin Iliev Bulgaria Concert Hall
Conductor
Vladimir Kiradjiev
End: 20:30 Soloist/s
Ensemble
National Philharmonic Choir

Chamber Hall
Soloist/s
Yavor Zhelev
Ensemble
Philharmonica String Quartet
Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Quartet for Flute, Violin, Viola & Cello KV 285a in g major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Quartet for Flute, Violin, Viola & Cello KV 298 in A major
Ludwig van Beethoven – Serenade in D major, Op.8

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

Conductor
Ernest Hoetzl
Soloist/s
Zlatomir Fung
Ensemble
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra
Program
Paul Hertel - Emigration of Strings
Camille Saint-Saëns - Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor
Antonín Dvořák - Seventh Symphony

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

Children's performance to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns - Premiere
Duration 1:00
Chamber hall

Ballet adapted for children after the music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Chamber hall

The Palace
The National Gallery possesses 22 graphic works by Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), which, along with those of several other artists from her circle, constitute this exhibition. These artworks emphasise the major plastic and philosophical aspects of both Kollwitz’ searches and her encounters with the work of some 20th-century artists extremely distinguished for their aesthetic and technical virtuosity—including Max Slevogt (1857–1920), Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), Heinrich Zille (1885–1929), Otto Dix (1891–1969), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), and Otto Nagel (1894–1967). The National Gallery’s collection of their artworks is shown for the first time in its entirety, presenting their mastery while simultaneously revealing in depth their humanistic world view.
Regardless of the fact that they stood for different pathways in figurative art, these names influenced crucial moments in Käthe Kollwitz’ creative career and life, and the general trend of their views towards history, society and culture.
Käthe Kollwitz, the exhibition’s unifying figure, is the most well-known German artist, both in her time and today. Her style won recognition despite the constant opposition of official authorities to her oeuvre. Her art is shattering, addressing the most dramatic and universal human values with an emotional commitment to social conscience and pacifism. Her graphic and plastic works were a fateful part of what she herself experienced, shoulder to shoulder, along with the images she depicted—through the feelings of a mother mourning her dead child and of women who desperately want to save their children from war, misery, and hunger. She was the first female professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where she led the graphic arts masterclass before the Nazis forced her to leave because of her anti-fascist and creative stances.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The exhibition ‘Franz von Stuck. Between Light and Darkness’ is the first presentation in Bulgaria of the famous German symbolist (1863 – 1928), popular among the general public in our country because of his work ‘Lucifer’ (1890) from the National Gallery’s collection, purchased by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria during his visit to Munich the following year. Now it is exhibited alongside twelve of the artist’s works from the collection of the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich (portraits, mythological and religious paintings, and related drawings and etchings) providing an overview of the artist’s oeuvre.
The two paintings that brought Stuck worldwide fame, the large-format ‘The Guardian of Paradise’ (1889), which is rarely shown outside Villa Stuck, and ‘Lucifer’ from our collection, will resume their dramatic dialogue, meeting again in Hall 24 of Kvadrat 500. In addition to witnessing the expressive clash between “light” and “darkness,” viewers have the opportunity to get acquainted with other famous works of the artist, e.g., ‘Prometheus,‘ ‘Samson and the Lion.’ The impressive canvas ‘The Sin’ became so popular that the artist executed several versions, including the one shown in the exhibition that he installed in the “Altar of the Artist” in his studio in Villa Stuck. The display allows re- experiencing Franz von Stuck’s iconic work ‘Lucifer’ in its original context, loaded with the semantic characteristic of the era in which it was created.
The exhibition design decisions address the aesthetics of Villa Stuck – Franz von Stuck’s greatest artistic project, which was later turned into a municipal museum, preserving a large part of the artist’s work. In Hall 24, the architects Kiril Ass and Nadya Korbut used a series of spatial and colour allusions to the Pompeian antique tradition that Stuck laid at the heart of his decorative solutions.
Franz von Stuck is one of the most famous representatives of the Symbolist movement in art worldwide and is among the founders of the Munich Secession, the predecessor of the one in Vienna. To this day, Symbolism remains among the most popular and attractive artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. This exhibition expands the Bulgarian public’s understanding of one of the most famous European artists from the decades between the 19th and 20th centuries. Through his works, one could become more familiar with the art of Symbolism, which greatly influenced Bulgarian modernists. Franz von Stuck was a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, and architect; among his students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich were world-renowned figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and the Bulgarian Kocho (Konstantin) Garnev.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, published in partnership with the Museum Villa Stuck and containing an in-depth account of the works on display.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and co-financed by the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation. Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Iaroslava Boubnova, curator of the exhibition
Mariya Kodinova, assistant curator

Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition presents 25 young but already well-established artists, with defined positions in art and individuality of expression, whose works are a reflection ofcontemporaneity. They are of a generation that makes frequent appearances in the artistic calendar, but whose compositions are rarely included in public or private collections. They are united by the occasion of their joint meeting: 25 years of the Darik Collection, which was initiated with the plein-air event, ‘Sound and Colour’, held ever since 1999.
Created outside a predetermined framework and the demands of the day and the market, these paintings, graphic works, and drawings possess all the ease and immediacy of a meeting between artists, plein-air organisers, and their public. Flying fish, seagulls, sandy bodies, traces of plastic—these are just a small sample of the images in the social, poetic, or surreal reality recreated in the exposition.
The pictorial selection was made by Nadezhda Dzhakova, head of the contemporary art division of the National Gallery and includes works by the following artists: Albena Petkova, Boris Pramatarov, Vasil Kolev, Veliko Marinchevskи, Velislava Gecheva, Gergana Minkova, Gergana Nikolova, Goran Trichkovski, Deyan Yanev, Dimitar Genchev, Elena Kaludova, Zoran Mishe, Ivan Mateev, Irma Vodeva, Kalina Mavrodieva, Kalia Kalacheva, Kaloyan Iliev – Kokimoto, Lora Parmakova, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Mark Pospiech, Nora Ampova, Petya Deneva, Radoil Serafimov, Svetlozara Alexandrova and Stilyana Uzunova.
The event is an occasion not only to meet them again, but also to view the rich collection of over 500 works by 200 artists. On the day of the opening of the exhibition, a new, second catalogue, titled ‘Collection with Continuation’ will be presented, showcasing works they have produced at Darik Radio plein-air events over the past five years.
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
Curator: Boryana Valchanova, PhD
Kalina Taseva ranks as one of the illustrious figures in the panorama of Bulgarian visual art. She embarked on her artistic career in the 1950s in an extremely difficult sociocultural environment — a time highly charged with ideological dogma regarding Bulgarian art. Her works were not affected by contemporary artistic trends; instead, they were multilayered, revealing a breadth and complexity of thought, and executed with extreme professionalism.
Through her powerful expression, and in a challenge to the time in which she lived, Taseva bolstered her prestige, thereby establishing her vivid presence in the annals of Bulgarian painting. Leading up to the 1980s, her large-format, multifigural compositions on favourite historical and Revivalist thematics were central to her oeuvre. She produced images of Macedonian rebels, revolutionaries and haidouks, of women wearing coarse peasant clothes, with a combination of plastic strength and emotionality — the faces are dramatic, austere, and preoccupied. The forms of her earlier works are more decorative, and the line is clear and definite; while, in later works, it is more expressive and dynamic.
A considerable proportion of the painter’s oeuvre was devoted to portraiture. Close friends, artists and intellectuals often served as her models, their complex inner worlds recreated through static poses and contemplative states, with the atmosphere and subdued lighting contributing to the psychological impact she wished to achieve. Taseva applied her entire painterly power to landscapes and still lifes, which perhaps most fully revealed her artistic talent. She expressed nature’s lyrical moods in a series of canvases dating from the 1990s. By combining her original sensibility, personal style and pronounced emotional strength, the artist sought for a poetic impression of chromaticism.
It is the first time that Kalina Taseva is being represented at the National Gallery. The exhibition includes artworks from the collections of the National Gallery; Sofia City Art Gallery; the galleries in Blagoevgrad, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Sliven, and Yambol; from the heirs of Kalina Taseva, and private collections. The BNT film ‘Kalina and the Comites’ (2016) will also be shown within the exhibition.
Media Partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.

Kvadrat 500
The fourth edition of ‘The Wall’, the National Gallery’s project launched in 2020, welcomes artist Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar to the Kvadrat 500 Atrium. At one of the areas designated for contemporary art and located at the heart of Kvadrat 500—home of the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition—there rises a monumental structure titled ‘The Wall’. The idea of creating this facility was largely prompted by the need to present mural and graffiti artists in the gallery. After showing the works of Nikolay Petrov GLOW (2020), Alexi Ivanov (2021) and BILOS (2022), the project now introduces Mihaela Mihaylova – Misha Mar. She presents ‘Portrait of the Moon in Black’, a composition representing the eight phases of the Moon in black and white, painted over more than a month. As a true selenophile, Mihaela examines the theme in detail and conceives a particular affection for the subject of her studies—marks visible on the surface of the exquisite portrait she creates.
‘My Moon,
‘My faithful friend in the night, this is a love letter to You, painted with the calligraphy of my soul on Your surface. All the words I never told You, fixed upon the layers of our unspoken secrets that glow with the reflected light of the burning desire of the day.
‘This is for You…’
Misha Mar
The eight faces of the Moon—the full moon cycle—‘rises’ on ‘The Wall’ in the Sculpture Garden of Kvadrat 500, to the accompaniment of MUSICAL STATUES. Guests will be able to enjoy special summer cocktails with MALFY GIN.
The project is made possible through the support of the Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation.
About the artist In 2008, Mihaela Mihaylova graduated in Iconography from the Tsanko Lavrenov National Secondary School in Plovdiv. Later, she was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and, in 2014, she graduated from the Photography Master’s Programme at the National Academy of Arts. The artist has held several solo exhibitions and been included in many group exhibitions. In 2023, she presented to the public her first photo book, ‘MAR’, with black-and-white photographs depicting the parallel worlds ‘between the mountain and the sea, between birds and firebugs.’

Vera Nedkova House Museum
‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, the programme launched in 2019, continues to present contemporary artists in an atmosphere filled with a myriad memories and marked by the artist’s intellectual and creative presence. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova’s exhibition re-evaluates the significance and meaning of the times and memory of events and facts, refracted through the artist’s distinctive lens. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova conveys the memory and emotion of ‘Obsession’, an exhibition by ‘The 8th March’ group shown back in 1999 at the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, when the building was dilapidated, abandoned to the vagaries of time, with its fate still unclear. Through the installations, ‘Obsession—25 Years Later’ (2024), a 14-minute video, and ‘Testimony’ (1999), Lyahova takes us back to the pathos of the time. Based on the installation from that exhibition and works produced in 2019, she has created a small pencil drawing. Her attempt to rethink and superimpose a system of images and facts reveals a curiosity that the artist shares with the viewer.
The basis of the present exhibition is the opportunity for personal perusal of, and extensive research into, the issue of preserving the museum as an institution and, simultaneously, transferring memory. Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova sets out the idea of the transition and essence of the image, its presence in the domain of feelings, and the inherent associations evoked in the mind. Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

Ballet adapted for children after the music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Chamber hall

A concert with songs from the musicals "Anastasia" and "The Sound of Music"
Duration: 0:50
Chamber hall