The Breath of Matter

The exhibition is an attempt to present the relation between material-work of art in sculpture. At first sight, this relation probably remains overlooked, underestimated or unnoticed but it has huge significance in the realization of a work of art. The different material presents the sculptor with different opportunities for expression and sets specific limits.  Through juxtaposition of well- or less-known works of art from the Sofia City Art Gallery reserve we seek contrast between the plastic and artistic dimensions, created by the different materials. The exhibited works of art focus mainly on the problems in recreating human face and figure. The chosen sculptures are made by some of the most famous names in Bulgarian art, such as Ivan Lazarov, Assen Peykov, Andrey Nikolov, Vaska Emanuilova, Lyubomir Dalchev, Krum Damyanov, Ziatin Nuriev, Thomas Kochev, Vezhdi Rashidov, Pavel Koychev, Angel Stanev, Dimitar Sotirov, Spartak Dermendzhiev, etc. 30 works of art are chosen. The exhibition could have included even more works of art, especially by adding the forms of modern art. Due to this reason, the chosen works of art sort of represent conventional, classic, canonized material – stone, bronze, wood, terracotta, etc.  Avoiding the alternative to turn the exposition into a “guide in material knowledge”, the works of art included in the exhibition are chosen to represent mainly the artistic and plastic abilities of the material. The main focus of the exhibition is the semantics of the material or in other words – its significance and symbolic load defined by the connotations to periods and works of art, that are key to the history of art.