Exhibition
“Sixty Years of Andersen’s Tales”
LYUBEN ZIDAROV
illustrations
16 November – 7 December 2021
Rakursi Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition of illustrations “Sixty Years of Andersen’s Tales” by Lyuben Zidarov.
For the artist, who has illustrated hundreds of literary works, he often remains associated with “love for life” with one of them. For Lyuben Zidarov, this turned out to be The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. According to the illustrator, their poetics, philosophical depth and wisdom make readers of all ages – from children to the elderly – to discover something of their own there, which remains forever intimate. That is why the return to Andersen at a different stage of life leads to new, unprecedented nuances and suggestions.
What is different about the artist is that he reads and makes his own discoveries in Andersen’s tales through his illustrations to them. And so, for six decades.
The first two-volume book with black-and-white and color illustrations was published in 1964-65. Their success and international awards for the author led to two more editions in the 1960s and 1970s, each of which was a development of their plastic interpretation, which leads to an evolving illustrative stylistics. The illustrations from the “Second Period” created in the late 80’s and early 90’s were not published until 2006, in connection with the 200th anniversary of Andersen’s birth. The interest in them became the reason in 2015 for an invitation from the Beijing publishing house Ever After Books for a special edition with a new selection, intended for the Chinese-reading audience.
At the end of last year, a publishing house from Zahariy Stoyanov made possible the appearance of Andersen’s illustrations from Lyuben Zidarov’s the “Third Period”. Here the conversation between the artist and the writer, in a moment in life in which they seem to equalize in age, reaches a new, completely unconventional method, mixing tempera, watercolor and pencil with the influence of drawing and painting.
Six editions, six different versions of Andersen and “sixty years” in between.
http://www.bta.bg/bg/c/EZ/id/2513609
https://www.facebook.com/myBulgariatoday/posts/1511091009270469
https://www.viewsofia.com/article/51384/Sheyset-leta-Andersenovi-prikazki%2CLyuben-
https://bnr.bg/post/101558091/izlojba-sheiset-leta-andersenovi-prikazki-na-luben-zidarov
https://www.monitor.bg/bg/a/view/shejsette-leta-na-luben-zidarov-s-prikazkite-na-andersen-290998
финансиран по програма „Едногодишен грант 2021“ на Национален фонд „Култура“ (НФК)