THE AUTHOR'S POSTER BY PROF. IVAN GAZDOV
("Author's posters are guideposts for your brain folds" - Prof. Gazdov)
The poster is a commissioned (advertising) creation that cannot always be called art. Regardless of whether it is a theater or a paper clip workshop, it is obliged to praise them with its entire arsenal of visual customization. The idea of the "Author's Poster" by Prof. Gazdov escapes all of this. The artist becomes both an investor (he orders the task himself) and a performer (author of the aesthetics). The author's poster becomes only art and nothing else. And because for related (and birth) reasons it carries all the visual effectiveness of the qualities of the poster, it becomes an aesthetic phenomenon with an independent place in contemporary art. The first solo exhibition of an author's poster in Bulgaria was in 1978 at 108 Rakovski Street in Sofia by Ivan Gazdov. The series “The World of the Guild” is thematic signs of an idea and a joke at an innovative level. Reserved signs of IDEAS instead of COMPANIES. Until now, the then assistant of Prof. Alexander Poplilov (who opened the exhibition), has evolved purposefully. His is the definition “Author's Poster” (notarized), his is also the most emblematic series “Game of Silhouettes”, a kind of symbol-credo of the whole idea, accepted in the world of the poster with great respect (possession “by invitation” and purchase from famous museums, and above all the personal opinion of masters such as Shigeo Fukuda and Kazumasa Nagai from Japan).
The form in the author's poster is cut with the categoricality of a stone relief, so that its appearance in the brief moment of perception captures attention like a starting shot. A knife against dullness, a blade against stupidity, an outburst against the business mediocrity of the genre. The black and white monotony is obviously disturbing. Only an author with extreme confidence in the narrative power of the created image is capable of giving up all the picturesque bacchanalia and vulgar colorful gymnastics. Something like a hammer blow on the anvil for modeling the image. Looking at these posters after this moment becomes an ode to perceptions of the most purified kind, dusting off all the compromising and compromised excess of everything that is not in the goal – the only idea with its visual joke of the highest standard. Prof. Gazdov has called his author's posters "Guide signs for your brain folds". This definition best embodies the meaning of their creation. Of course, this applies only to where the folds have already created a path for this completely unique graphic to triumph. In fact, in this case, the definition of "poster" is necessary just as much as to just give the viewer a hand, and then have him think about how he will cope with the whole complexity of the cognitive burden that has befallen him. This latter is a light play with conceptual visuality and its obligatory dominance.
Prof. Gazdov, as a professing the idea of a supra-commercial author's path in the most applied creativity of the poster, opened the floodgates of new energies in the otherwise well-canonized routine poster everyday life. The artist is also a leading figure as a professor with active implementation of the idea as the "School of the Author's Poster" at the National Academy of Arts, but this is not a mass phenomenon and program obligation, but a game for initiates, unlocking the ideals of graphic art based on specific individual gifts.
With the appearance of this colossal "Opus Magnum" in the work of Prof. Gazdov (album monograph "Author's Poster", 330 pp., 800 ill.), together with the idea of "Graphicature", Ivan Gazdov appears to be the most influential visual artist in the graphic arts of Bulgaria. And with his 5 awards from Japan alone, he positions himself in the high aesthetics of world graphics, as the Japanese ambassador noted in his welcoming speech in 2015 at the then jubilee exhibition of the artist.
Opening: November 5, 2025, 6:00 PM
Location: Academy Gallery, 1 Shipka Str., Sofia
Closing: November 24, 2025
Guest artist: Prof. Dr. Nikolay Mladenov
Curator: Ivana Murdjeva
The exhibition will be presented by Georgi Lozanov and Georgi Kapriev
Source: National Academy of Arts
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