Stefan Fartunov Hall Period: August 15, 2025 – January 10, 2026
The exhibition The Bright Side of Life brings together works from the Museum’s art collection and guest canvases by a total of 30 Bulgarian artists, who are meeting for the first time in a specially prepared exhibition. The works presented are constructed through naive expression – one of the most immediate and exciting artistic styles of our time.
For some of the authors, naivety is a main line in their work, for others – a short period, for others – a thread that appears episodically. What connects them is serenity – one of the distinctive features of this style. They almost always choose to see the glass half full.
Naive art entered the world art scene at the beginning of the 20th century – with the jungles of Le Douanier Rousseau and the Artists of the Sacred Heart group in France, with the naive poetry of Niko Pirosmani in Georgia and, a little later, with the canvases of Grandma Moses in the USA. These early paintings were the work of unschooled authors, distinguished by a lacking or distorted perspective, as well as by bright, raw colors, like windows to an instinctive world.
Like any artistic movement, naive art has no strict boundaries or objective criteria for recognition. Nowadays, many of the artists using naive expression have an artistic education and the creation of art is their conscious choice and vocation, and not an intuitive need, as with the first naive artists.
And what does art naive look like today? For us, these are the works that make us smile, sometimes because of the deliberate or completely spontaneous childish ease, sometimes because of the wink hidden in the story, or simply because of the positive mood that flows from the canvases. These are paintings free from academic canons, with a direct expression of feelings, moods, dreams – a flight to a better world, where everything is light, airy, liberated. May the smiles that this exhibition awakens stay with you for a long time – as a sunny reminder of the bright side of life.
The exhibition features: Angel Vasilev, Gancho Karabadzhakov, Georgi Georgiev, Georgi Yordanov, Georgi Panov, Grigor Nechev, Daria Vasilianska, Elisaveta Angelova, Emanuela Bayrakova-Popgencheva, Zdravko Yonchev, Irina Hristova, Kalina Atanasova, Keazim Isinov, Kiril Bozhkilov, Kosta Forev, Lika Yanko, Lyubov Toteva, Lyubomir Minkovski, Lyudmil Mladenov, Mariela Dimitrova – Mara, Nikolay Angelov – Gary, Nikolay Stoev, Radi Nedelchev, Rosen Rashev – Roshpaka, Rumen Gasharav, Stayo Garnoev, Stoyan Bozhkilov, Suleiman Seferov, Todor Pavlov, Hristo Stoychev.
Research and preparation of the exhibition:
Curator: Daniela Osikovska
Fine Art Department, Museum of Humor and Satire Translation: Nevena Ekimova Graphic design: Anton Ivanov, Studio Mozaika Printing of exhibition graphics: Visart
The Museum of Humor and Satire, the Comics section of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and the Project Daga Association
invite you on April 1st at 6:00 PM in the Stefan Fartunov hall
to the opening of the Fourth National Exhibition of Bulgarian Comics.
On our special day, at 4:00 PM, come to our Creative Comics Workshop with artists Petar Stanimirov, Rumen Chaushev, Ivan Berov and writer-screenwriter Marin Troshanov. We will draw together and discuss the process of creating illustrated stories – from the first word to the last stroke.
The exhibition is dedicated to historical comics and includes 148 panels with works by 100 Bulgarian authors – from the pioneers of the genre from the mid-1940s such as Alexander Denkov, Vadim Lazarkevich and Lyuben Zidarov to contemporary artists.
You will see works created for popular publications such as the magazines Daga (Rainbow) and Wonderful World, the newspaper Stories in Pictures with favorite authors such as Venelin Varbanov, Evgeniy Yordanov, Petar Stanimirov and Stoyan Shindarov.
Many examples from the years of transition are also presented – the illustrated adventures of Ivaylo Ivanchev in the Fyut magazine, the publications of David Salaria with drawings by Penko Gelev, historical comics about kings and voivodes by artists such as Alexander Vachkov and Veselin Chakarov. The exhibition also includes numerous works after 2000, created during the period of renewed interest in the genre.
During the exhibition, you can also watch the documentary Daga – Stories in Pictures, produced by Four Hands Studio in 2018. The film follows the history of the iconic Daga magazine and introduces us to many of the artists who created comics for it. Started in 1979, the magazine existed until 1992 with a total of 42 issues and a circulation reaching 300,000 copies. Daga is a unique publication for the entire former socialist bloc, and some of its characters live on in the memories of readers to this day.
The Museum of Humor and Satire presents “Worlds” – a large-scale retrospective exhibition of the beloved Gabrovo painter Ivan Hristov – Groga (1942 – 2024). Located on the entire fourth floor, the exhibition includes over 100 works and traces various stages in his professional development.
The exhibition is part of the celebrations marking 165 years since Gabrovo was declared a city.
The work of Ivan Hristov – Groga is a true revelation in the world of art. In a photorealistic style and with poetic sensitivity, he saturates his pictorial worlds with unique depth and significance. Nature is his favorite subject. The artist depicts it not just as a background, but as a living organism. Particularly impressive are his winter landscapes, filled with cool tones and ethereality, evoking deep emotions and reflections on the transience and fragility of life. Groga creates “portraits” of birds, with a refined sensitivity to their beauty. His painting is not only a means of aesthetic revelation, but also a public position and a warning about human activities that destroy nature.
The exhibition features paintings from the collections of the Hristov family, the Museum of Humor and Satire, Hristo Tsokev Art Gallery – Gabrovo, Aspect Gallery – Plovdiv, Djurkovi Gallery – Plovdiv, Vidima Gallery – Sevlievo, Assen and Iliya Peykovi Art Gallery – Sevlievo, the Specialized Museum of Woodcarving and Iconography Art – Tryavna, Otets Paisii 1928 Art Gallery in the village of Dumnitsi, and private individuals.
The exhibition includes a screening of 3 documentaries, which provide the audience with the opportunity to get to know the artist’s personality.
Ivan Hristov – Groga was born in the Gabrovo village of Dumnitsi into a family with rich traditions in stonemasonry. An alumnus of the Aprilov High School, in 1969 he graduated from the University of Veliko Tarnovo, majoring in Poster Art. For over a quarter of a century, Groga devoted himself to teaching at the Secondary Art School in Tryavna, inspiring generations of young artists. Despite his specialization in posters, he remained faithful to his “old love” – painting, turning it into his main means of expression. Groga’s creative legacy includes dozens of solo exhibitions and successful appearances in prestigious forums. He is an active and highly appreciated participant in 14 editions of the Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and Satire in Art, with distinctions in 1999 – third prize for painting, in 2005 – the special prize for painting of the Ministry of Culture. In 2005, 2006 and 2013, the artist won the Hristo Tsokev Аward of the Municipality of Gabrovo. In 2014, he was awarded the Honorary Badge of Gabrovo for his overall contribution to the town’s cultural life.
20 December 2024 – 30 June 2025 Opening: December 20 (Friday), 18:00
” … Stoyan Venev (true to his own jovial, cheeky and mocking nature) ridiculed the vices of his time or else amused himself with the comical pitfalls of his “heroes”, even when from a purely sociological point of view, the ‘funny’ had deep dramatic dimensions.” Dimitar Avramov
In 2024, 120 years have passed since the birth of Stoyan Venev – one of our most recognizable artists, a significant figure in Bulgarian art in the last century.
In an attempt to offer a modern look at the artist and, in a way, founding father of Bulgarian art, an exhibition was curated in hall 5 of the Museum of Humor and Satire, presenting 151 of his paintings, cartoons, satirical drawings, sketches and watercolors.
The exhibition includes a screening of 4 documentaries, which provide an opportunity for the audience to get in touch with the artist’s personality.
The story of Stoyan Venev’s work and personality is further developed with literature, catalogs and albums in the Museum Library.
The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and is a joint project between the Museum of Humor and Satire – Gabrovo, Art Gallery “Vladimir Dimitrov – Master” – Kyustendil and partner collectors.
Under the influence of the characteristic works of Stoyan Venev, generations of Bulgarians from their earliest childhood build their ideas and attitude towards the surrounding world, social changes in society, historical processes and events. His name is widely known even today. Bulgarians over middle age recognize the works of the Kyustendil artist. His colorful canvases, cartoons and drawings have long been in galleries and private collections and today are defined with the word “classic”.
Going through his life with as much dynamism as in his art, Venev has always been the object of interest from critics, journalists, colleagues and the general public – an innovator, with a bright sensibility and a single-minded, carefree creativity. In his works, the expressive color, the intimate realism, the insertion of symbolic and allegorical signs, and the social element are impressive.
Stoyan Venev developed as an artist with a keen sense of social tensions and expressed his views through a specific style. He has been widely popular since his youth, a significant exponent of the proletarian line in art between the two world wars, the last of the great representatives of the Rodno Izkustvo (Native Art) movement.
For two decades after the September 9 coup, the artist worked for the “new socialist culture” and for “representational engaged painting”.
In the 1960s, this extremely wayward artist happily returned to his characteristic previous style – to pre-war modernism, the subjective, conditional and primitive, breaking the imposed restrictions – to be truthful and realistic in the generally accepted and expected sense, with predetermined ideologically substantive and style-plastic frames.
Much of his subjects reflect his understanding of criticism as a function of art and his dozens of satirical drawings simultaneously glorify and ridicule, a peculiar mixture between the heroic and the grotesque – “… the same primitive peasants – moustached, wide-eyed, ugly and funny; still the same village festivities and funny anecdotes…” (D. Avramov).
*quote from the article “Stoyan Venev – an original artist of the primitive Bulgarian village” by Dimitar Avramov in kultura.bg from 21.09.2014
The exhibition can be viewed in the virtual tour, which provides freedom of movement and interaction with the exhibition through interactive markers added to the works in it.
The project “How life was at Janachkovi” was prepared based on the illustrations of Vendula Halankova.
The opening of the exhibition was on November 5 at 17:30 at the Museum of Humor and Satire.
The project is implemented by the Czech Cultural Center in Sofia within the framework of the Year of Czech Music program and with the support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sofia, Czechoslovak Club “TG Masaryk” in Bulgaria, the Czech Theater Institute, Sound Czech.
The exhibition presents illustrations to the two books from the legacy of Marie Stejskalova, called Marji, a longtime housekeeper in the family of the composer Leoš Janáček.
Leos Janáček (1854–1928) is the world’s most performed Czech opera composer.
Vendula Halankova (*1981) graduated from the Environmental Studio of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno.
Since 2017, he has been a collaborator of the Tourist Information Center BRNO (TIC BRNO) in the field of non-traditional propaganda of the personality of Leoš Janacek, within which a series of paper collages and illustrations of the books “Marji’s Cookbook” and “Marji’s Memoirs” were created.
All projects prepared by the Tourist Information Center BRNO (TIC BRNO) for Leos Janacek can be viewed here: https://www.leosjanacek.eu/en/
On October 24, 2024, the exhibitions from Cartoon Salon 2024 were presented, with an important highlight of this year’s edition being the solo exhibition “Piece of Time” by Prof. Аnri Kulev in hall 7 of the Museum of Humor and Satire.
On April 4 this year, he was awarded the museum’s special award in the National Cartoon Exhibition, which included a plaque “The world lasts because it laughs” and the right to a solo exhibition, the theme of which is in tune with the next parliamentary elections . There are also several accompanying events for children and youths during the exhibition period, the first of which is an Animation Workshop. It will be held during the autumn vacation from October 31 to November 3, 2024.
Prof. Anri Kulev is an artist, director and producer of feature, documentary and animated films. He has been teaching animation direction at the New Bulgarian University since 1993. He is the director of the World Animation Festival in Varna and a member of the jury of many international festivals, including those in Annecy, Hiroshima, St. Petersburg, Varna. Prof. Kulev is a scenographer and director of theater productions. He has over 15 solo exhibitions – graphics, animation sketches and painting, in Annecy, Hiroshima, Sofia, Oberhausen, Krakow, Berlin, Moscow, Bratislava, Plovdiv, Varna, etc. After his show in MoMA, New York in 1980, the animations Garsonniera and Sunday entered the Museum collection. He is the winner of nearly 30 national and international awards for his films.
Prof. Kulev has published drawings, cartoons and comics in newspapers and magazines from 1964 to the present day. He has directed more than 70 animated, documentary and feature films as well as documentaries about Yildiz Ibrahimova, Ivo Papazov – Ibryama, Samir Kurtov and the country of Algeria. Among Kulev’s famous films are the comedy Sparrows in October scripted by Stanislav Stratiev, the animation The Rag, the films Zaches, Ms. Dinosaur, The Father of the Egg, The Death of the Rabbit.
Awards:
– 2024 – Prize of the Museum of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo at the 49th national cartoon exhibition;
– 2023 – Lifetime Achievement Award at the Love is Madness Film Festival;
– 2022 – Lifetime Achievement Award at the Monstra Film Festival – Lisbon, Portugal
– 2021 – Honorary citizen of the city of Sofia;
– 2020 – Award for overall creativity of the cinema festival Sofia Film Fest;
– 2019 – Golden Age Award of the Ministry of Culture – for a special contribution to the development of art and culture;
– 2000 – Bratislava 2000, Biennale of Illustration – winner of a special award named after Alvin Brunovski for outstanding contribution to the development of world animation cinema
Starting on October 24, the Museum of Humor and Satire presents the Cartoon Salon 2024, a traditional autumn event focusing on cartoons. It includes 3 exhibitions, including the 49th National Cartoon Exhibition and awarded and nominated cartoonists from International Cartoon Contests “Water, River, People” and “Olive”.
Hall 3 – Stefan Furtunov, Museum of Humor and Satire Opening: October 24, 17:30 Duration: October 24, 2024 – March 1, 2025
49th National Cartoon Exhibition
Нo matter how well one lives in media space, at some point one encounters CARTOONS.
In recent years, in counting its sequence, the National Cartoon Exhibition has been in constant competition with the National Assembly – at its opening on April 4 at the UBA at Shipka 6, Sofia, they were in parity – 49 to 49. Now the result is 49 at nearly 51. This is probably a reflection of the greater degree of thoroughness and responsibility with which cartoonists approach their work. That is why politics is strongly present both on the walls of the halls of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and in the Museum of Humor and Satire.
Of course, the National Exhibition is not an overview of all Bulgarian cartoons, the participants work independently and successfully in various media and attend general exhibitions at their own will.
This year’s salon features works by 27 authors with nearly 90 cartoons. In addition to the living legends Lubomir Mihailov, Ivaylo Tsvetkov, Valentin Georgiev, Maya Tcholakova, Prof. Anri Kulev, Alla and Chavdar Georgievi, Margarita Yancheva, Dilyana Nikolova, Tsocho Peev, Irien Trendafilov, etc., you will also meet new faces, such as : Alexander Simov, Evgeni Nachev, Luiza Hamel, Mario Ivanov, Silvia Gancheva and others.
In our selection of the 49th National cartoon exhibition you will see the things in life between the funny and the unfunny, the provocative and the entertaining, between war and peace, but also philosophical insights, graphic permutations and funny illustrations.
In Cartoon Salon 2024, you will also meet the works of the award-winning authors of the 49th National Cartoon Exhibition:
Dimitar Atanasov – award of the Union of Bulgarian Artists
Konstantin Anastasov and Tsvetan Pavlov – award of the Cartoon section of UBA
Maya Tcholakova – award of the Metropolitan Municipality in the name of Donyo Donev
Lubomir Mihailov – award of the Bulgarian Red Cross; Veselin Zidarov – honorable mention by BRC
Prof. Anri Kulev – prize of the Museum of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo
Anatoly Stankulov – Gill and Hoof Award, established by Eng. Borislav Konstantinov and Lyubo Nikolov for a cartoon on the theme Nature, Hunting and Fishing
Silvia Gancheva – prize of the Zharava club, Kubrat Municipality and the National Competition for Humor and Satire in Kubrat
Valentin Georgiev – Raiko Aleksiev award
First International Contest “Water, River, People“
In 2024, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Cooperation in the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River and 20 years of celebrating the Day of the Danube River, the Municipality of Ruse, OP Ruse Art and UBA – Cartoon Section organized the contest Water, River, People.
More than 150 artists from 49 countries participated in the competition.
An international jury determined the winners of the first, second and third prizes, as well as the three incentive prizes:
First Prize – Jacek Frankiewicz, Poland
Second Prize – Rucke Souza, Brazil
Third Prize – Tsocho Peev, Bulgaria
First Prize Nomination – Asier Sanz, Spain
Second Prize Nomination – Kessusanto Liusvia, Indonesia
Third Prize Nomination – Konstantin Kazanchev, Ukraine
On June 29, an exhibition with the award-winning cartoons was opened in Dohodno Zdanie, Ruse.
Cartoon Salon 2024 is the first exhibition with guest appearances of the award-winning and other selected works from the competition.
“Olive”International Cartoon Contest
The Museum of Humor and Satire presents a selection from the 13th edition of the International Olive Cartoon Contest, held in Cyprus in 2024. The selection includes all award-winning cartoons as well as selected works from the competition.
The Olive Cartoon Contest was conceived in 2007 by the Cyprus Turkish Cartoonists Association. 23 years ago, Kyrenia Municipality in Cyprus started an Olive Festival, aiming to preserve the olive tree and its products, produced locally for thousands of years.
The unplanned urbanization and reinforced concrete construction that started in the Turkish Cypriot community in the 1980s caused the olive tree, an important local product, to decline. As a result of faulty zoning plans, houses were built in areas where olives were formerly produced. The Turkish Cypriot community, which used to export olive oil, is now importing olives and olive oil from abroad due to faulty policies. In order to draw attention to these problems, the Olive Cartoons Contest was born, aiming to criticize the contradictions and wrong policies regarding olive production in a relatable way.
Starting as a national event, the contest evolved to an international level. In 2020 the name was changed to International Olive Humor Festival – International Cartoon Contest, in order to also include free-themed cartoons.
In 2024 it was announced that only cartoons in black and white would be accepted to the contest, due to several reasons. According to the organizers, in recent decades cartoon art has been facing major problems. Originally drawn in plain or exaggerated lines and printed only in black and white, cartoons have gradually deviated from their essence. Art products such as illustrations, photographs and paintings are converted into drawings with computer programs and presented as cartoons. Intense colors are used in such productions, making lines and quips less understandable. Furthermore, non-cartoonists who steal other people’s ideas with the help of computers and AI, have taken over the world of cartoon art.
As a result of this bold decision, after many years we once again can experience the magnificence and impactful simplicity of black-and-white cartoons in the 13th edition of the International Olive Cartoon Contest.
Screenings of the Museum of Humor and Satire documentary
From September 20th, in hall 7A, every day from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., you can watch the documentary film about the Museum of Humor and Satire Laughter and Freedom. The screenings are dedicated to the European Heritage Days 2024.
During the half-century history of the Museum, events of national and international importance have taken place here, it is a meeting place for some of the world’s names in the field of comedy and satire in art, literature, theater, cinema. Documentary productions have been made over the years, tracking individual moments, but so far no complete film narrative has been created about the history of the institution and the interesting personalities associated with it. In the Museum’s anniversary year, the film looks back with a critical assessment of what has happened so far, but also forward to its future.
The project was implemented with the financial support of the Culture 2022 Program of the Municipality of Gabrovo.
From the end of September to November 4, the traveling exhibition of Tochitsa publishing house Think before you grow up! will be a guest at the Museum of Humor and Satire. The opening is on September 21 at 5:00 p.m. in hall 8 and will be preceded by a children’s illustration workshop at 3:30 p.m. hosted by Zornitsa Hristova and artist Yasen Grigorov in the new library on the 3rd floor. Over the past 14 years, Tochitsa publishing house has had the pleasure of working with some of the best Bulgarian illustrators and now invites you on a walk through their worlds, a visual conversation about growing up and about its path, which is never one-way. The selected works included in the exhibition represent the artists’ contemporary view of children’s books. What’s more – according to the organizers, they “retain the freshness of the text and challenge the imagination to complete the images and the setting created by the words”. Marieta Tsenova is curating the exhibition.
With the participation of: Kiril Zlatkov, Miglena Papazova, Yasen Grigorov, Yulian Tabakov, Siyana Zaharieva, Vyara Boyadzhieva, Kalina Mukhova, Penko Gelev, Alya Markova, Milena Valnarova, Mila Yaneva-Tabakova, Asya Koleva, Anelia Pashova, Inna Pavlova, Mila Lozanova, Ina Hristova, Anna Tsocheva, Anna Georgieva.
The project is implemented with the support of the “Creation” program of the National Culture Fund.
If the pretty Happiness Str., located between the Museum of Humor and Satire and the Yantra River in Gabrovo, is not on your way during the upcoming dynamic summer weeks, have a look at our newest exhibition online. We did upload it here as it is originally an exterior establishment but there is not a single spot of shade left outside!
The exhibition and the project of which it is a part are possible thanks to the National Culture Fund and the Program for Restoration and Development of State, Regional and Municipal Cultural Institutes, and brings together photos and lessons learned on the key topic of content digitization.
