Prof. Anton Donchev will be awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art
2023.10.26
At an official meeting of the Academic Council of the National Academy of Art, to be held on 31 October 2023 (Tuesday), starting at 4:00 pm in in the aula of the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design (73 Tsarigradsko shosse Blvd), Prof. Anton Donchev will be awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art.
Anton Donchev was born in Tryavna (Bulgaria) in 1943. In 1969, he graduated from the National Academy of Arts, with a degree in Woodcarving, in the course of Prof. Assen Vassilev. He became a teacher in the degree programme in Woodcarving at the Academy of Art in 1978. From 1984 he was an associate professor, and from 1989 he was a professor. Member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and its chairman in the period 1989–1990.
Prof. Donchev has participated in general art exhibitions of decorative and applied arts in Bulgaria, group and representative exhibitions in Oslo, Brussels, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kuwait, Warsaw, Berlin, Leipzig, Budapest. During the period 1970–1989, he realised 58 objects of decorative and monumental arts in architectural environments. He works mainly in the field of wood sculpture.
Prof. Anton Donchev is the laureate of many prestigious awards, including:
- Award of the Ministry of Culture for participation in the exhibition dedicated to the Ninth World Youth Festival (1969);
- First prize at the National Exhibition of Decorative Arts, Sofia (1972);
- Prize of the Committee for Art and Culture – IV General Youth Exhibition, triptych "Wedding" (1975);
- Award of the Union of Bulgarian Artists (1978);
- State award for achievements in the development of modern Bulgarian woodcarving and for the realisation of the wood-carved panels "Light" in Sofia City Art Gallery and "Love of the Sun" in the National Palace of Culture (1980);
- Sofia Fine Arts Award (1981).
His works are owned by a number of galleries, as well as private collectors at home and abroad, among them the National Gallery, Sofia City Art Gallery, National palace of Culture, the Art Gallery in Yambol, the Ethnographic Museum in Vratsa, the Museum of Decorative Art in Troyan, the National Gallery of Decorative Art, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow, and private collections in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Hungary, the USA, Germany, Japan, Russia, the Czech Republic, Canada, France, Italy. Anton Donchev is a phenomenon in Bulgarian modern woodcarving and has a unique artistic style.