BULGARIAN WOMEN PRINTMAKERS IN THE 1930s AND 1940s

Abstract

The women who represented the first generations of artists who engaged in Bulgarian printmaking played an important role in our national art history. Their art, though, often remains somewhat neglected by researchers and their works are rarely shown at exhibitions and expositions, thus rendering them relatively less known to the general audience. The current article aims at presenting five women artists who played a key role in the development of printmaking in our country – namely, Anna Kramer, Lyuba Palikarova, Petrana Klisurova, Binka Vazova and Sidonia Atanasova. Some of them were active in the graphic arts sphere for decades but the article is focused on the 1930s and 1940s – a period when the specific features of their artistic expression and the scope of storylines and themes emerged, thus predetermining to a great extent the very essence of their art throughout their artistic careers.