CENTER FOR CULTURE AND DEBATE "THE RED HOUSE" ANDREY NIKOLOV
Who is Andrey Nikolov?
With his life and work, the sculptor Andrey Nikolov, born in 1878, created a bridge between the European sculptural tradition in the spirit of Roden and the modern Bulgarian sculpture of the 20th century, which gained European recognition to a great extent thanks to him.

Andrei Nikolov's heritage is very diverse. Among his most famous works are лъвът пред Паметника на Незнайния войн в София, „Торс", „Дух и материя", „Майчина целувка", „Майчина гръд", the portrait busts of Ivan Murvichka, Alexander Balabanov, Stoyan Mihailovski, Kiril Hristov and others. As a professor at the Academy of Arts in Sofia from 1931 to 1940, Nikolov managed to create his own school where he was educating followers of his exquisite style of sculpting.
The art of Andrey Nikolov comes straight from nature ... Warm in blood, as a young body, it contains in the spring glitter of the forms a vibrant and shaking spirituality. Andrey Nikolov is a son of his people; and his delicate musical art seems to be meant to show ... that Bulgaria is a mother of spirits capable of the purest manifestations of civilization.
Francesco Sapori, "Emporium" magazine, 1925
Andrey Nikolov was born in Vratsa on the 29 of April 1896 - old style, (May 12 - new style) in the home of a poor shoemaker. In 1896 he joined the School of Painting in Sofia and was in Boris Schatz's class , with whose recommendation he later went to study in Paris with a state scholarship. In 1914, after completing his studies in Paris, he settled in Rome, where he quickly integrated himself into the creative circle around the Free Art Academy.

At first, Andrey Nikolov was sent to Rome to monitor the preparation of the клишетата за гербови марки ordered by the Bulgarian state. The outbreak of World War I, however, caused his business trip to Rome to continue until 1919. After 1919, Andrey Nikolov remained in Rome at his own expense until 1927.

From 1915 to 1926, Andrey Nikolov regularly presents his works at the Annual Roman Exhibition. In 1922 he was elected as a member of the jury of the exhibition and later as a representative of foreign artists in the Governing Council of the International Association of Artists in Rome. Among the friends and people he associates with during this period are the famous Italian sculptor Sartorius, the writer Francesco Sappori, George Nourijan and the sculptor Arnoldo Zochi. His frequent guests are Alexander Balabanov, Rayko Aleksiev, Majdrakov.

In 1919, on his way back from France after the signing of the Treaty of Neuilly, Alexander Stamboliiski, then the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, visited Andrei Nikolov in Rome. Impressed by his work, Alexander Stamboliiski urges him to return to Bulgaria. "You will come to Sofia, we will make statues and busts of all our deserving people, from the Renaissance to the present day," Stamboliiski commends. In 1921-22, Andrey Nikolov sculpted Stamboliiski's bust, and later, in 1927, he returned to Bulgaria. As a professor at the Academy of Arts in Sofia from 1931 to 1940, Andrey Nikolov managed to create his own school where he was educating followers of his exquisite style of sculpting.
"Andrey Nikolov ... proceeds from the Earth to show us that it would be more humane and perfect if we bring into it at least a little of the dream - that we, on the Earth also carry the divine in our souls."

Sirak Skitnik, сп. „Златорог“, 1922
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