Gallery of the National Museum

Owing to these gaps, the picture gallery of the National Museum is of small assistance to the student in striving to determine the principal characteristics of Bulgarian art. Of far greater importance for that purpose are the art exhibitions which have been held during recent years in Sofia or abroad, and where Bulgarian art has been well represented both in quality and quantity. This is especially true of those exhibitions in which the artists belonging to both Bulgarian art societies have participated at the same time. There have been hitherto two such occasions: in 1904, during the first Southern Slav Art Exhibition, held in Belgrade, and in 1906, when the members of the Society of Art took part in the second Southern Slav Art Exhibition held in Sofia, while the Society of Bulgarian Artists organised an independent exhibition of the works of its members.

For the purpose of the present chapter, the Belgrade Exhibition offers far greater interest, not only because on that occasion the Bulgarian artists figured with better selected productions, but also, and mainly, because the juxtaposition of these latter with the works of Croatians, Slovenians, and Servians brought into more striking prominence the characteristic traits of Bulgarian art.

The four nationalities which took part in these exhibitions may be classed into two groups, Croatians and Slovenians forming the first, while the Servians and the Bulgarians formed the second. The most striking feature of the works of the Croatian and Slovenian artists was their form and technique. There can be little doubt that this peculiarity is due to the political condition of these two nationalities, neither of which exists as an independent political unit.

Both Croatians and Slovenians are engaged in a racial struggle with the predominant German element in the Austro Hungarian Empire a struggle which is reflected in  all the departments of their national life, art not excluded. They realise that, if they are not to be worsted in Balkan tours 2020 – 2021 this struggle, they must not prove themselves inferior to their rivals in those respects where the latter most excel, the more so as in the case of neither of these two nationalities have form and technique been transmitted traditionally or been evolved on independent historical lines.

Slovenians and Croatians

In contrast with Slovenians and Croatians, the distinctive feature of the productions of Servian and Bulgarian artists seems to reside in their contents rather than in the form. As representatives of free nations, they are not under the necessity of fighting for the right of existence, and in matters of art they have done as they did in other branches of their national activity: they borrowed from other nations such forms as did not exist at home, and gave them a national content. Owing to this circumstance, we find both in Servians and Bulgarians a lack of equilibrium and unity between the form and the subjects treated.