Exactly 50 years after graduating the High School for Fine Arts in Sofia three prominent Bulgarian artists – oil painters Nikola Manev and Lachezar Oshavkov and sculptor Pavel Koichev opened a joint exhibition in the gallery of the school. They dedicated the exhibition to their teacher Nikola Arashev and it gives an opportunity the Bulgarian public to re-discover his talented presence in Bulgarian art. Nikola Arashev (1895 - 1984) is a prominent representative of expressionism in this country. He has participated in General Expositions and in a number of important exhibitions abroad. He has also held one-man shows in the capital Sofia and in his hometown of Stara Zagora. As a pedagogue he has left wonderful impressions in his students.

“The most precious lessons of Arashev are those that made us fall in love with the profession of an artist”, says for Radio Bulgaria Nikola Manev. “There are two types of professors. Some are extremely talented, even geniuses, but at the same time they are bad pedagogues. They somehow manage to make you avoid their courses. The second type, however, make you love the profession. Nikola Arashev definitely belongs to the latter type. His lessons were entertaining, good mood was always present and our desire to work was enormous. He taught us to be enthusiastic towards art, because he himself had that gift. The current exhibition is our way to express our respect towards him. The three of us show works of ours from that period – the end of the 50s of the 20th century. I offer five of my paintings created under Arashev’s supervision. I also present five contemporary paintings of mine, created this and last year. The difference between them is enormous and the public will notice my evolution. Today, 50 years later, Arashev has our big thanks that he gave us complete freedom to work and taught us how to express ourselves”.

“He taught me in the first two years of high school, when we studied oil painting, sculpture and black-and-white etching. It was later that we took a concrete specialty”, adds Pavel Koichev. “He taught us oil painting. He was extremely well disposed towards us but at the same time objective. I am extremely grateful to him as he was the first person to prompt that it would be better is I did not master in oil painting. To speak the truth I myself suspected the same. We had an annual exam in oil painting and had to draw a nature mort with a jug. I had accomplished something but it was apparent that I did no have the hand of an oil painter. He delicately shared this opinion of his with me despite the fact that he had given me a good grade. He turned out to be 100 per cent right. The best thing not only in him but in our other teachers as well was the fact that they were extremely moral towards the art. This is a lesson I remembered for life. I graduated together with Nikola Manev and Lachezar Oshavkov and after that continued in the Academy for Fine Arts. After the first year Nikola went to France. Lachezar went to Paris after he graduated the Academy. Thus we had an opportunity to be together for another five years before he went to France. He dedicated himself to oil painting, while I stuck to sculpture. It is due to the fact that we are friends since 1954 that I agreed to participate in the current exhibition, although it shows mainly oil paintings”.

And here is what Lachezar Oshavkov says about the exhibition “Nikola Arashev and students”.

“I must say that there is a terrific self-portrait of Arashev in the exhibition. It is from the 30-s. Works of his from different periods are exhibited. I participate with paintings of mine from 1957 – 1959 while I was still a student in the High School for Fine Arts. I also show some works from the first year in the Academy and only one painting from the 21st century – a nature mort. All these paintings clearly show the differences between the period of accumulation I underwent and the different influences I passed through: realism, impressionism, post-impressionism and what not. There is a wonderful bronze portrait that Koichev made of me and with which I am extremely proud. The work dates back to 1959. I have also exhibited the portrait of Nikola Manev that I drew in 1957. All in all there are many interesting things to be seen”.

English version: Ivaila Bozhanova