The doyen of Bulgarian illustration Lyuben Zidarov passed away

The oldest working artist in Bulgaria was 99 years old

published on 1/4/23 3:44 PM

Любен Зидаров

Photo: Ани Петрова

Master illustrator Lyuben Zidarov passed away on January 3, 2023 before he turned 100, the Union of Bulgarian Artists reports. "We say goodbye to one of the brightest personalities in Bulgarian art over the past century," the union said.

Zidarov has illustrated the works of about 200 authors. He has been awarded numerous national and international prizes. Several generations of Bulgarians grew up with books with his magnificent illustrations.

Among the most significant of these are Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Scheherazade's Tales, Bulgarian Folk Tales, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales and many others. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

He has been chosen by JK Rowling to illustrate the complete Bulgarian edition of the Harry Potter novels, published in 2019.

"The illustrator must keep his own face, but he cannot go entirely out of the author, because he illustrates the writer's work. He has to get closer to his world, to his concepts, of course with his own soul and his own plastic vision. ...I have been more concerned with these problems, which have led me to interpretation, than with grafically recreating the literary work." This is how the artist introduced us to his creative laboratory in 2014 in an interview with Julia Petrova of BNR's Hristo Botev programme.