Author: Milena Katsarska, Suman Gupta
Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv
Open University, London
Published in: Slavyanski dialozi, XVI, 2019, 24
Abstract: Art history today often applies the already established dichotomy official/unofficial art, which emerged and got consolidated in the dialogic (self)construction between the “two camps” at both sides of the Iron curtain. This process leads to (a) neglecting a large body of art which was celebrated and received official approval within the communist period and (b) simplifying both the complexity of the receptive field during communism and the role which officially endorsed art plays. This text adopts a different approach. It is anchored in the particular and examines closely the reception of Zlatyu Boyadzhiev within a period of several decades.
Key words: official/unofficial art, Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, art in national state socialism, state sanctioned and endorsed art, receptive fiel