Bulgaria
Valentin Assenov is a Bulgarian painter who lives and works in the picturesque city of Pleven.
He studied painting at the Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo. Assenov's canvases are skillful examples of the combination of vivid color and abstract composition inspired by the traditional Bulgarian landscape. His expressive style of painting shows great boldness in the use of color as well as a distinctive style and skill, and his still lifes are literally bursting with color and good humor. Assenov's paintings are part of the collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and are also widely represented in private collections in Bulgaria, Germany and Turkey.
Jules Pascin, born Julius Mordecai Pincas, was a Bulgarian-born American painter and draftsman. He studied art in Vienna, Munich, and Paris, where he settled in 1905.
Pascin became known for his portraits and nudes, which often featured elongated figures and fluid lines. He was also noted for his use of watercolors and his depictions of Parisian nightlife, cafes, and brothels. His work was influenced by the Fauvists and the German Expressionists.
Pascin was a member of the Montparnasse artistic community in Paris, and he was friends with many of the leading artists and writers of the day, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Ernest Hemingway. He was married twice, but his personal life was marked by numerous affairs and a struggle with alcoholism.
His work is held in many major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Margarita Pueva is a Bulgarian and German painter and sculptor.
She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. She has lived and worked in Germany since 1991 and opened the Pueva Gallery in Düsseldorf in 2003.
Pueva focused mainly on the human figure. The people in her paintings are strange, introverted, passive and vulnerable, but her work recalls the magical land of Alice and her Mad Hatter. She was inspired by medieval religious sculpture and the primitive art of Africa. Pueva's work is regularly presented in Germany, France, Italy, and the UK.
Christo Yavashev is a Bulgarian-born American sculptor and artist who, with his wife Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon, became famous for his work, in which he «packaged» objects ranging from a typewriter and a car to the Reichstag building and an entire seashore.
Iliya Zhelev is a Bulgarian painter who lives and works in his hometown of Plovdiv.
He graduated from St. Cyril and Methodius University in Veliko Tarnovo in painting and is one of the leading contemporary artists not only in Bulgaria, but also in Europe.
Zhelev's works are abstract paintings, portraits and depictions of cities, characterized by his distinct and recognizable style. He is inspired as much by Bulgarian folklore and carpet weaving as by contemporary European art, as by the renowned masters Klee, Kandinsky and Polyakov. Zhelev uses the complex classical technique of glaze painting, in which layer upon layer is applied, alternating with long drying phases. As a result, his works acquire the typical brightness that makes up his unmistakable handwriting.
