The Art Gallery was opened on 25.05.1962. Fervent participation in the creation of the fund of the newly created art gallery took the cultural and public figure Angel Budev. Collections of Mikhail Kremen and Bogomil Rainov were purchased. In 1962 in the town came to paint artists from all over the country, including Stoyan Venev, Panayot Panayotov, Ivan Hristov and others. The works created by them ,about 80 canvases, form the original fund of the gallery. The building of the Nikola Petrov Art Gallery was built in 1892 on the foundations of an old fortress facility. Author of the project is architect Todor Varchota. In 1976, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the death of the great Bulgarian painter Nikola Petrov, born in Vidin, the gallery was named after him. Then the artist's bas-relief was placed above the entrance door of the gallery, made by the sculptor Georgi Chapkanov.
Today, the gallery contains over 1,400 works of art. The painting department is the most numerous - it has 800 canvases. Among them are the original works of Ivan Mirtvichka "Ladies Portraits", Boris Mitov "Portrait of Dr. Vitanov", Nikola Petrov "Market in Byala Slatina" and "Baba Vida", thirteen works by Vladimir Dimitrov - The Master, among which The work "Mother and Child", Sirak Skitnik - "Boats", Zlatyu Boyadjiev - three canvases, among which is the plot composition of the Brezov Cycle In the Fields, by Stoyan Venev, Vassil Stoilov, Zdravko Alexandrov, Ivan Tabakov and other big artists of fine art. The collection includes works by Ivan Hristov, Ivan Ivanov, Yordan Geshev, Alexander Poplilov, Vladimir Manski, born in the Vidin region, as well as by Stefan Todorov, one of the founders and the first director of the gallery.
In the gallery are also presented the most brilliant representatives of contemporary Bulgarian painting - Georgi Pavlov - Pavleto, Svetlin Rusev, works by Nayden Petkov, Alexander Petrov, Dimitar Kazakov - Nero, Emil Stoychev, Atanas Yaranov, Ivan Vukadinov, Yordan Katsamunski and others. The gallery also has pictures of almost all contemporary Vidin artists.
The graphic department of the Art Gallery in Vidin contains 45 original prints of world famous masters: Rembrandt "Portrait of Koppenol" etching, Albrecht Dürer "Judas kiss" - woodcarving, Gustav Dore Illustration from the series "Hell" - woodcarving and lithography "Headman" Francesco Mile "Newborn" - etching, lithographies of "Algerian Women", "Antique Medallions" and "Smith", Theodore Rousso, "Landscape by Bio". The gallery also has works by the Bulgarian masters - Veselin Staykov, Vassil Zahariev, Juli Minchev, Zlatka Dabova, Galileo Simeonov, Petar Chuklev, Rumen Skorchev and others. The sculpture department stores sculptures by Ivan Funev, Lyubomir Dalchev, Anastasia Gyukova, Nikola Terziev, Boris Gondov, Alexander Apostolov, Prodan Prodanov and others. The Nikola Petrov Art Gallery is organizer of the National Landscape Exhibition at national and international venues. Works from them also enrich the fund of the gallery.
Source: http://vidin.bg/
Translation Yordan Georgiev - trainee
