site.btaBest Loved Illustrator Lyuben Zidarov Dies at 99

Legendary Bulgarian illustrator and artist Lyuben Zidarov passed away, aged 99, on January 3, the Union of Bulgarian Artists (UBA) said on Wednesday.

"Zidarov's remarkable children's books illustrations and paintings have shaped the taste of several generations. Active until the very last, he inspired us with his unabated urge to experiment, with his optimism and his subtle sense of humour," the UBA said.

Born in Tarnovo, North Central Bulgaria, on December 23, 1923, he graduated in painting at Sofia's National Academy of Art under Prof. Iliya Petrov in 1948. Between 1950 and 1970 he contributed to the children's Septemvriiche newspaper and Slaveyche magazine. From 1967 to 1970, he was in charge of artwork at the Narodna Mladezh publishing house. His most famous illustrations include The Arabian Nights, Bulgarian Folk Tales, R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island, Andersen's Tales, Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and The Prince and The Pauper, H.B. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Oscar Wilde's Tales, E.T.A. Hoffmann's Stories, adventure novels by Karl May, Mayne Reid and Jules Verne, and books by Bulgarian writers Nikolay Rainov, Angel Karaliychev, and Asen Raztsvetnikov.

In 2019 Zidarov produced the Bulgarian 20th Anniversary edition cover art of the Harry Potter books.

His numerous awards include Grand Prix of the First National History Exhibition of Bulgarian Comic Books, Gold and Silver Medal at the international book fairs in Leipzig and Moscow, the Boris Angelushev Prize of the Union of Bulgarian Artists (1976), and the Hans Christian Andersen's Athens Prize (1976). He was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize. In 2022 he received an honorary doctorate from the National Academy of Art. 

His works are in the holdings of the National Gallery of Art in Sofia, the Sofia City Gallery, the Honk Ik University Gallery in Seoul, The Prince of Wales Art Collection at St James' Palace, London, and private art collections in Canada, the US, Norway, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

"Lyuben Zidarov was indeed an epoch. He epitomized the best tendencies in Bulgarian illustrations and beyond. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a specific quest for stylized shapes, figures and colours in Eastern Europe: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria. He was among the best and among those who laid the foundations of these quests," illustrator Iassen Ghiuselev commented.