Фирмената реклама в първите десетилетия на ХХ век и българските художници
Business advertising in the early twentieth century and Bulgarian artists

Summary/Abstract: In-print advertising at the turn of the twentieth century was sporadic, but following 1910, advertising went viral both in the press and the public domain. Meanwhile, the earliest critical reviews were published in the press dealing with the advertisement phenomenon, as well as guides instructing how to use ads. Bulgarian artists joined the process of designing business ads. Some of them were already well versed in designing books. Due to the widely formed low opinion and the specifics of this graphic printing product, the process of claiming authorship refers to the changed attitudes towards the artistic manner, which got new value after 1920. Art ads were preferred for securing success a priori. The advertising image had to be attractive, gripping and eye-catching owing to its visual form and style, but it had also to be recognisable, related to the everyday life of the Bulgarians or at least to represent an attainable ideal. Both Bulgarian decorators, graphic designers and cartoonists such as Charalampi Tatchev, Alexander Bozhinov, Ivan Penkov, raiko Alexiev, Ivan Enchev-Vidiu and artists known predominantly for their easel paintings such as Ivan Mrkvička (he designed the poster for the first Expo in Plovdiv), Konstantin Shturkelov, Ivan Nenov, Ari Kaluchev, etc., made every effort to cope with this task.The issue of the early twentieth-century advertising in this country, including the visual images of business ads, is almost unstudied by Bulgarian researchers in the areas of history, journalism, mass communications, social studies. The published art studies offer general views of the specific niches of performance of Bulgarian artists in the field of applied graphics. The issue of Bulgarian the early twentieth-century business advertising and of the contribution of Bulgarian artists is expecting its new readings.

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