The Building

Who is Andrey Nikolov

Andrey Nikolov was born in Vratza in 1878. He studied at the Fine Arts school in Sofia under the guidance of Boris Schatz. Winning a government scholarship, he left for Paris in order to continue his studies. In 1914 Andrey Nikolov completed his education there and headed for Rome where he became a member of the Free Art Academy in Rome. At that time Andrey Nikolov was appointed by the Bulgarian government to monitor the preparation of plates for the revenue stamps. He remained in Rome till 1919 because the First World War broke, and later decided to stay in the Eternal City until 1927, when he returned to Bulgaria.

From 1915 to 1926 he regularly took part at the Annual Rome Exhibition. He was chosen a member of the jury of the exhibition in 1922, and later became a representative of the foreign painters in the Board of the International Painters Association in Rome. Among Nikolov’s frequent guests were the sculptors Gulio Aristide Sartorio and Arnoldo Dzochi, the writer Francesco Sapori, Alexander Balabanov, Rayko Aleksiev and Mazhdrakov.

On his return from Neuilly in 1919, Aleksander Stamboliyski went to see Andrey Nikolov in Rome, and, impressed by his work, offered the sculptor to return in Bulgaria where he would be commissioned to make sculptures of all great Bulgarians.

Among his most famous works are “Torso” (“Tors”), “Spirit and Flesh” (“Duh I material”), “Mother’s Kiss” (“Majchina tzeluvka”), Mother’s Bosom” (“Majchina grud”), the sculptures of Ivan Murkvichka, Al. Balabanov, St. Mikhajlovsky, Kiril Hristov, the lion at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Sofia, etc. Being professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia from 1931 to 1940 he created his own school. Andrey Nikolov’s creative work bridges the European cultural tradition (in Rodin’s style) and the Bulgarian modern sculpture of the 20th century.

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