10 years ago, selected works from the impressive drawings collection of Prof. Chavdar Slavov, which includes over 200 works of graphic artists, were shown in SCAG (Sofia City Art Gallery) for the first time. They represent a large spectrum of artists, from ones who have become classics, to contemporary artists. His collection is also one of the largest private collections of contemporary Bulgarian drawings. It includes works by famous authors, many of whom are presented with their most significant achievements, as well as rare samples and limited editions. Even until today, Prof. Slavov’s endeavors of popularizing the art of drawing have not ceased.

This current exhibition at Vaska Emanouilova Gallery presents part of the drawing collection of Prof. Slavov PhD through the figure of the woman. We find her between nature and imagination as muse, model, guardian, mother, totem. Her face is also present in the portrait genre. She is an exotic princess or a maiden, a Bulgarian woman or a typified character. These images have one thing in common, and that is a sense of permanence. An image that has become eternal.

The exhibition includes about 40 works executed in various techniques of graphic art – print, lithography, etching, aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint, serigraphy. Among the authors represented are printmakers from different generations – Zlatka Dabova with the print Vow and Karl Yordanov with the etching Nude (1957). Rumen Skorchev with part of the series Pandora’s Box VI (2000), Ivan Ninov with the work Washerwoman (1974), Svetlin Rusev with Bulgarian Woman (1979) and Nude (2008), Svetozar Benchev with Object I (New Camera Obscura), Ivan Ninov with the drawing Portrait (1972), Nina Kovacheva with Woman with a Bird (1986), Borislav Stoev with Femininity (1983), Zahari Kamenov with Duet (1988), Andrey Daniel with the lithograph Japanese Room (2002), Dimo Kolibarov with the work Reflection I (2016), as well as drawings by Vladimir Chukich and others. Among them, we find various images such as Mother by Alexander Denkov and Composition with Two Figures by Dimitar Kazakov – Nero.

Younger drawers such as Veselin Damyanov – VES are also shown. The exhibition includes one of Petar Chuklev’s last drypoints – Antique Motif II (2022). The lithograph Metaverse by Atanas Yaranov, as well as an early work by Milko Bozhkov – Woman with a Hoop (1981) executed in etching and aquatint, are also rare and valuable images.

Collecting is a creative process. For more than 40 years, Prof. Slavov has devoted himself to his passion for black-and-white art. He defines himself as a “connoisseur of art” and has made it his mission to popularize the art of Bulgarian drawing both in our country and around the world through his travels and participation in a large number of international congresses and medical forums related to his profession