His wandering soul saw worlds he represented on black sheets of paper. But the cosmos, with its vast secrets was revealed in his works at a time when the abstract and fantastic realms clashed with the bonding materialism of the day. The state power managed to lock his drawings out of sight, but even the harshest and gloomiest regime could not arrest the free human spirit.

In 1963, Vasil Ivanov was preparing his first exhibition but on the eve of the opening he was called to the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party where he was told he should abandon his artistic searches, as not only had he moved away from the line of socialist realism in art, but he had also become a "banner of an indecent group of young people" who were hiding involvement in religious practices behind their yoga classes.

“Vassil Ivanov was an outstanding artist and person - both charismatic and creative, who, unfortunately, fell into the shadow of unpopularity," Lyuben Genov, chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Artists says. “He was born in 1909 in Sofia but graduated from high school in Kazanlak where he studied art with Chudomir. In 1939 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts as his lecturer was Nikola Ganushhev, and later became close to Peter Deunov and felt close to the ideas of his White Brotherhood. His work is characterized by two stages - painting and his specific drawings on black background using white chalk (so-called cosmic drawings). This cosmic cycle is particularly impressive with the strange radiance of light from the painting on black background. But he also has magnificent miniatures on the topic of woods, done in the traditional pencil or charcoal technique on white paper. His works are featured in the collections of renowned people such as Peter Uvaliev, who has published reviews about his artwork in London, Yuri Bukov, who was trying to present his work in Paris, writer Romain Gary aka Émile Ajar.”

The artist lived as a free man in his world - looking at the stars through his drawings and living in his humble shack in “Izgrev,” the quarter of the Deunov followers, where one could see the portraits of Van Gogh and Einstein hanging on his walls. His personal philosophy, overlapping with Deunov’s ideas, brought him into laconicism during his last creative years when he was drawing worlds that had long disappeared or that were yet to be born, says his friend director Georgi Stoyanov - Bigor. In these works he sees a combination of destruction and creation.

The sensible soul of artist Vassil Ivanov is revealed in his intimate letters to his wife ballet dancer Elisaveta Yosifova. “There are sorrows that no one can take away from us, and we have to bear their weight ourselves. Within a short earthly life, no one has been spared; no one has remained at the top of illusory earthly happiness. Every Earthly form of life is condemned to destruction. Happiness is beyond the forms we dream of,” he writes about human existence. He used to be warmly welcomed in the galleries of Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Melbourne but as a proof of his words, he was burdened by sorrow at the end of his earthly days.

“After a visit to Paris and attempts to be presented there, Vasil Ivanov was somehow disappointed and his inner faith in success declined”, Lyuben Genov says. “Even his relatives say that after returning to Bulgaria, he almost deliberately caused his death, letting himself fall ill. Despite the fact his works were displayed in many galleries across the world, the artists could not enjoy his success and gradually lost interest in life. But whatever the truth is, it is known that his mystical images will continue to fill viewers with admiration.”

English: Al. Markov