The National Gallery presents its unique collection of Western European textile panels (tapestries) for the first time. The tapestries dating from the 16th to 18th centuries—the golden period of the two most significant schools, the Flemish and the French—were added to the collection in the 1960s through the Bulgarian National Bank, in the depository of the then National Gallery of Decorative and Applied Arts. The exhibition in Hall 19, Kvadrat 500 is the result of several years of iconographic and attributional research of the artworks, along with restoration and conservation procedures.
Tapestries, these handwoven panels, extremely expensive to produce, with their colourful images, were used as both decoration and wall insulation in palaces and castles. In their splendour and as trappings of power and prestige, they adorned private and public spaces and became the exclusive property of the elite. The 16th century was the golden age of Flemish art, and Brussels emerged as the leading centre for tapestry manufacture. Series of frieze-like monumental thematic compositions with scenes from the Old Testament and Christian doctrine, as well as landscapes and allegorical images, were produced. The use of sources from ancient mythology was frequent, as exemplified in the exhibition by the ‘Romans and the Sabines’ set. By the middle of the century, tapestries were to become true woven paintings.
The 17th and 18th centuries saw the rise of the French tradition. During the reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIV, and by virtue of the initiative of the Minister of Finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the Royal Manufactories of Tapestry of Gobelins, Aubusson and Beauvais were founded. At that time, the best representatives of all the arts and crafts were recruited to glorify the absolute monarchy and to fulfil assignments for aristocrats, taking as their models works by artists such as Rubens, Simon Vouët, Charles Lebrun, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, François Boucher and Charles-Joseph Natoire. The themes were inspired by religion, history, and mythology. One example of this is the tapestry titled ‘The Race of Atalanta and Hippomenes’, based on a tale from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. The fashion of the time shaped entire salon furnishings with armchairs with woven upholstery depicting anthropomorphic animals based on the moralistic fables of Jean de La Fontaine, conveying timeless lessons on human nature and society. The taste for Orientalism was also apparent in the art of weaving, as illustrated here by two of Claude-Joseph Vernet’s tapestries.
The exhibition programme includes lectures, specialist tours and workshops dedicated to the technique of making tapestries, the restoration and conservation of ancient textiles, as well as activities targeted mainly at children and young people. A mobile digitised version of the exhibition is envisaged, to be presented by the State Cultural Institute of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Bulgarian diplomatic missions, to the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Brussels, as well as to the Museum of Textile Industry in Sliven, a branch of the National Polytechnic Museum, and to the history museums in Panagyurishte and Strelcha.
The study and preparation of the tapestries for this exhibition took more than a year in the Conservation and Restoration Laboratory of the National Gallery, through funding from the Ministry of Culture and in partnership with the French Institute in Bulgaria and the National Academy of Arts.
Curator: Yoana Tavitian

The Vera Nedkova House Museum
The programme, ‘In the Home of Vera Nedkova’, continues to present contemporary female artists in the cosy atmosphere of the artist’s apartment, marked by her intellectual and creative presence.
Denitsa Todorova was born in Plovdiv but has lived and worked in Antwerp for many years. Impressed by the museum in the centre of Sofia, she has prepared an exhibition titled ‘Metaphor for Memory’, an emotional return to and reflectiveness on memories and the past. The works offer a nuanced and symbolic exploration of the imaginary space where the sensitivity of women and their fragility and transformation are mirrored.
The project fills the Vera Nedkova House Museum with a fine, delicate energy that blends into the artist’s creative imagery. Her interpretive vision propounds the issue of underrepresented ‘stories’ of women in the history of art.
The focus in the artist’s oeuvre is on the hidden, intangible gestures and the ephemeral presence of subtle metaphorical scars.
Some of the abstract drawings were inspired by the museum itself and specifically created for the exhibition. They are executed on fine paper with layers of graphic powder.
Denitsa Todorova gradually removes part of it, exposing individual details in the completed work.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency
Diana Draganova-Stier, exhibition curator

Kvadrat 500
Opening on 19 June (Thursday), from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM With the special participation of NASHTA.VERSIA – an audiovisual means of transport, probing the infinity of perceptions in risky impro acceleration
Having launched in 2020, the long-term project of the National Gallery ‘The Wall’ aims to present contemporary masters of mural painting and graffiti artists. On a specially designated wall in the atrium of Kvadrat 500 (with impressive dimensions of 2.40 x 27 m), the artists create monumental works in harmony with sculptural pieces by Alexander Dyakov, Pavel Koychev, Galin Malakchiev, and others, which are part of the representative museum exhibition.
Ivo Iliev Yeto is well known for a number of emblematic large-scale murals at key locations in Sofia. Through them, he creates stories in which nature, man and symbols interact in surreal situations, carrying multi-layered meaning and interpretation. With a pronounced interest in comics and graffiti since his childhood, Yeto still maintains his preference for magical subjects. His works have been realised far beyond the borders of the country – in Austria, Germany, Greece, France, etc.
In the space opposite the atrium, selection of small-format landscape compositions will also be displayed (June–August 2025), in which reality, magic and dream bring a special sense of timelessness. They are part of a larger series entitled ‘No Snooze Mornings’, in which the artist presents his searches and reflections on the fleeting moment between the end of dreaming and the moment of awakening – when human consciousness experiences a special kind of frustration at the inability to determine what is real and what is not.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Martin Kostashki, curator of the exhibition

The Palace The National Gallery in Sofia is pleased to present Облъчване (Irradiation), a solo exhibition by Anton Vidokle, curated by Martina Yordanova and Vasil Vladimirov.
Installed in the historic Royal Palace, the exhibition brings together six of Vidokle’s films made over the past decade in dialogue with a special installation of twenty-four Himalayan landscapes by Nicholas Roerich, created between the early and mid-20th century.
The exhibition includes Immortality for All! (2012–2017), a trilogy that introduces the central themes of Cosmism through a polyphonic montage of voices and images. Citizens of the Cosmos (2018), filmed in Tokyo, enacts a manifesto by the anarchist-cosmist poet Alexander Svyatogor. Autotrofia (2019), filmed in southern Italy, interlaces a prose poem by artist Vassily Chekrygin with a scientific treatise by Vladimir Vernadsky. Gilgamesh: She Who Saw the Deep (2021), co-directed with Pelin Tan in Kurdish in southeastern Turkey, revisits humanity’s earliest tale of the quest for eternal life.
Scored with fragments of music by John Cale, Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai), Laurie Spiegel, Éliane Radigue, Else Marie Pade, and Vidokle’s own voice and field recordings, the films resonate with hypnotic sonic intensity.
Presented alongside Roerich’s radiant Himalayan landscapes—long revered for their spiritual and healing qualities—the exhibition proposes an encounter between moving image, sound, historic collection, and the museum itself as a site of memory, preservation, and potential resurrection. Installed as a therapeutic array, Roerich’s paintings are conceived as more than images to be viewed: their vibrational color fields are believed to irradiate the body, fostering psychological and physical healing simply through presence and exposure. The dialogue between Roerich’s luminous visions and Vidokle’s cinematic meditations opens a speculative space where earthly and cosmic time converge.

The exhibition is dedicated to Prof. Valentin Startchev’s 90th anniversary and, albeit retrospective, presents only a portion of his impressive and multilayered output. The carefully selected artworks follow the sequence and progress of his formal and conceptual searches over the years: from small sculptures, through sculptural compositions and monuments at key locations in the urban and cultural topography of Bulgaria and beyond, to the latest works specifically conceived and produced for the Kvadrat 500 galleries. They not only develop those themes that have preoccupied the sculptor, but prove that artistic energy can be vital and explorative, while independent of the changing spirit of the times. His oeuvre is marked by exceptional plastic might, aesthetic insight and uncompromising inner discipline, assigning him a permanent place in the historical context of Bulgarian sculptural and monumental art.
‘Through Time’ is a journey—not only in the chronology of the years gone by, but also in the depths of the authorial artistic consciousness, which never ceases to explore the boundaries of matter, spirit and, above all, form. The exhibition is an invitation to meet an art that bears the marks of different eras, but never loses its voice. It documents part of the rich and multifaceted oeuvre of an emblematic artist, focuses on his luminous presence in our Bulgarian artistic life, and poses the question of the significance of Bulgarian art beyond time and transience.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.
Boryana Valchanova, PhD, exhibition curator

The International Biennale of Glass celebrates its fifth edition, reaffirming its role as a leading showcase for contemporary glass art in Bulgaria and around the world.
Since its launch in 2017, it has increasingly attracted artists and spectators, becoming a forum for the exchange of ideas and cultural encounters.
Under its traditional slogan, ‘Together’, this year at the National Gallery / Kvadrat 500 the biennale presents some 200 works by artists from 50 countries – an impressive selection, uniting established and emerging creators, different generations and a diversity of techniques.
Highlights of the exhibition include works by Václav Cigler (Czech Republic), one of the most influential figures in the development of optical glass and conceptual sculpture; a blown glass artwork by the world-famous Dale Chihuly (USA); a vase with applied elements of mythological symbolism by the Murano master Lucio Bubacco (Italy), and a spatial analytical work by artist and architect Han de Kluijver (The Netherlands).
This edition includes several key collaborations, including the Franco-Bulgarian residency of artists Clara Rivault and Plamen Kondov held at CIRVA (Marseille), the New Bulgarian University and the National Academy of Arts, the visiting exhibition of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, and the participation of finalists from the Glass Cutting World Cup in Světlá nad Sázavou.
The Art Real K.L.M. Association organises the event in collaboration with the National Gallery and with the support of the Tianaderrah Foundation (USA), the New Bulgarian University, the French Institute in Bulgaria, the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia, the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund, the Czech Centre in Sofia, Chihuly Studio and Charles Parriott, and a number of galleries, institutions and individuals engaged in the development of contemporary art of glass.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency.