As an aesthetic and social phenomenon of the modern age, of all other fine arts, the poster reflects most accurately, clearly and acutely the political and social climate of its time. Most often anonymous, genuinely street born, the Poster is the fastest to reach its viewers. It should hit with its calling power, it should be a slogan, a sign, a spell and a symbol. It has to be convincing and persuasive.
The history of the 20th century Bulgarian political poster has its ups and downs. It becomes a flag of the left-wing forces between the two world wars, proclaiming the new social ideas of time. In the years immediately after September 9, 1944 artists without special training in the field of poster art – graphics and painters, pave the way for the Bulgarian poster, search and find its essence, specifics and means of expression. During the Cult of Stalin Bulgarian poster becomes a substitute of its own, obeying the lowly criteria and directives of the regulatory aesthetics. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, several generations of professionally-trained poster artists bring poster art to its contemporary level of achievements, and the variety of their plastic visions determines the character of the Bulgarian poster school.
The New Political Poster exhibition is a joint project of the Museum of Socialist Art and the National Academy of Art. It offers an alternative point of view, a new focus on the thematic issues of the museum institution. Furthermore, it is an opportunity for expression of the younger generation of Bulgarian poster artists.
I am sure that in solving their academic tasks, students have faced all the challenges of the most complex and specific genre variety of the poster – the political theme. Today poster art is free from the ideological pressure of the past, from political and aesthetic “considerations”, from the dictum of the investor in the face of a party and a state. Now the question is what will be the new face of the Bulgarian political poster and what will be its public resonance. I think that the New Political Poster exhibition is relevant both to the issues it is examining and to the dialogue between the Museum and its audience. Here I see a chance to assess the ability of artistic and public awareness, responsiveness, understanding and attitude towards the social problems of today.
The reason for organizing this event is the comment of the journalist Stefan Djambazov from Въпреки.com about the very few political and social posters in our exhibition on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Specialty in Bankya Art Center.
Naturally, I did not quite agree with that statement, and referred to the genre variety sought in the selection. I also made it clear that our students have a specific learning task in their curriculum – the political poster.
Soon after that, in a purposefully made conversation with the artist Nikolay Ushtavaliiski, I shared mine and my students' intention to visit the Museum of Socialist Art, whose curator is he. Nikolay suggested that it would be a good idea if our visit to the Museum was followed by a poster exhibition. The museum we have not reached yet, but bringing the two comments together is how the idea for this event was born. The students received urgent tasks, so the majority of the posters in this exhibition were made in the last two months and added to the work of the past few years. Together with our colleagues from the Department we selected this exposition, and Prof. Georgi Iankov proposed the name New Political Poster.
This year our Specialty has had good cooperation with many organizations and cities, including the 70-year-old Dimitrovgrad. Today we celebrate another initiative with the 70th anniversary of the National Gallery. We are grateful for the invitation and the opportunity to show some of the works of our smart and talented students. Our hope is to present here the new face of the Bulgarian political poster, especially because we are among those who remember the old one. Let us hope that our students, having, for their own benefit, faced a past that is distant for them, will enjoy greater freedom to think about the present and the future.
Poster and Visual Communication Dept.