From 30 April till 31 May the Sofia City Art Gallery is showing the exhibition Retrospective with works of renowned illustrator Iassen Ghiuselev. He is one of the sons of celebrated Bulgarian basso Nicola Ghiuselev, a graduate of the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. Both Iassen and his brother Chavdar have been trained by the Academy.

What is the key word to describe the creative work of Iassen Ghiuselev? Is it 'talent'? We talked to the exhibition's curator Krassimir Iliev:

„I would say curiosity in the exploration of the history of art, because he often presents different eras in his works. In fact, as early as in high school he started sketching compositions with characters from different eras. Iassen loves to mix epochs, and the work of old masters with his own work. This was typical of his early years when the huge library of his father was available to him and he could scan unique books and to get a passion for fine art. If you take his Pinocchio, there are scenes there that are almost undiscernible. I mean they are so finely drawn. And these are reminiscent of Masaccio and Leonardo da Vinci.”

„Iassen Ghiuselev was lucky to graduate from the National Academy of Arts at the very dawn of democratic changes in Bulgaria. Many artists of his generation chose to emigrate. He went to Italy because he had lived there with his father and knew the country”, Krassimir Iliev says. “He is in love with Renaissance art and I think he is addicted to it. Italy is the perfect place for a start of his successful career.”

Iassen Ghiuselev works for various publishing houses. He has created illustrations for books such as The Queen Bee by the Brothers Grimm,  Arthur and Excalibur, The Birthday of the Infanta, The Queen of Spades, Orpheus and Eurydice, Socrates and many others. The books he has worked on have been printed in more than ten languages including Mandarin and Korean. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland alone has seven editions in various languages. A new Bulgarian edition is due in May. It will be followed by Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Iassen Ghiuselev has a handful of distinctions from international competitions in Europe and America including the award of the Buchkunst Foundation, Germany (1997); a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, New York (2004); the prize of the Bulgarian Hristo G. Danov publishing house for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2010) and others.

Krassimir Iliev explains that the artist is usually fully absorbed by his work, and never plans his next project.

„He is currently working on Decameron and is fully absorbed by Boccaccio. Well, this is in fact his method. Of course he has sometimes worked on two projects simultaneously, like in the case of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that took him four years to complete. In the meantime, he did other projects, but his method is to get absorbed by the theme and time of the book and in fact this is an essential part of the illustrator's job: to try to walk in the writer's moccasins, and become a co-author. With Iassen there is something exceptional - with every new project he gets released from the style that he previously used and tries something completely new and different influenced by the writer. Sometimes publishers have admitted they are not happy with Iassen's transformations, as they want their illustrator to be predictable doing a job similar to a previous successful one. There comes Ghiuselev and creates illustrations that are not what the publisher expected, and so the publisher ends up a bit disenchanted. Iassen however has repeatedly said he would never repeat himself because otherwise he would be bored with himself.”

The exhibition at the Sofia City Art Gallery features books illustrated by the renowned artist released in Bulgaria and abroad, posters and Tarot card designs by him.

English Daniela Konstantinova