The Sculpture Collection of the Ruse Art Gallery includes 189 works created in the period from the 1930s to the present day, where the 80s and 90s are best represented. This makes it possible to trace the changes in artistic views in Bulgarian sculpture.
The first sculptures in the collection of the gallery are purchased in 1946, with the funds of the City People’s Council – Prof. Ivan Lazarov, and Vasil Radoslavov.
In the 1950s and 1960s, state policy was carried out through targeted buyouts, with the creation of special bodies and commissions – the State Purchase Commission, the Commission on Art and Culture at the City People´s Council and the Ministry of Public Education and Culture. The sculptures come mainly from the ongoing Joint Artistic Exhibitions, from private individuals and heirs. The new aesthetics obliged the authors to depict certain characters and heroes – revolutionaries, partisans, and heroes of labour. From this period are the sculptures of Joka Radivojevic, Ivan Funev, Marko Markov, Blagoi Iliev, Georgi Radulov, Nikola Terziev and others.
Nikola Terziev – Zhelyazoto, “Head of K.”
In the 1970s, there was an enrichment of the theme, a breakthrough in the compositional and plastic construction of the sculptures. Along with the images of V. I. Lenin and G. Dimitrov, chamber portraits of people from different social groups appeared, as harbingers of the next stage in the development of sculpture.
In the 1980s and 1990s, genre forms diversified, and some of the authors moved away from pure figurativeness, relying on deformation to unlock associative-emotional perception. These are the works of Galin Malakchiev, Alyosha Kafedzhiyski, Vezhdi Rashidov, Philip Papazov, Ziyatin Nuriev and others.
The sculptures of Ruse artists can be allocated a separate section in the collection. They come from realized District Youth Exhibitions, general exhibitions of Ruse artists – Nikola Terziev – Zhelyazoto, Georgi Radulov, Vladimir Hristov, Maya Kubratova, Delyan Hubanov, Zyukhtyu Kalit.
Galin Malakchiev, “Cranes”
In terms of genre, the sculptural portrait, figure and composition, and small sculpture, executed in all the main materials – bronze, stone, wood, terracotta, fireclay, and glass, with the most numerous being the bronze sculpture – make up the collection.
There are few monumental compositions, most of them are executed in plaster as a model for subsequent placement in an urban environment (Ivan Funev in co-authorship with Marko Marko, Valentin Starchev).
The conceptual design of most of the works is based on the depiction of man and his experiences. Musicians, artists, and members of the public, close to the sculptors, are portrayed. There are also and self-portraits. In them, artists capture the state of mind, revealing part of their character. A contribution to the development of this genre in sculpture can be found in Alexander Apostolov, Nikola Bogdanov, Kiril Meskin, Velichko Minekov, and Nikola Terziev-Zhelyazoto.
In the last 10 years, the collection has been filled mainly by donations from the sculptors themselves – Nina Ivanova, Mariyana Kusheva, Delyan Hubanov, Daniel Kanchev, Georgi Pasev; from the editions of the International Biennial Art of the Miniature, whose award-winning works remain in the fund of the Gallery – Maya Kubratova, Georgi Radulov, Deyan Nikiforov; from ransoms – Emil Popov, Nikola Vladov – Shmirgela.
