On 19 May 2026, ‘Bread’, the exhibition of drawings by Atanas Katchamakoff (1898–1984) opened at the Sarafs’ House in Samokov.
The thirty drawings in the exhibition present the author’s visual tale about the life and labour of Bulgarian peasants in the early 20th century and about the ritual stages in creating bread during the different seasons. The works are accompanied by an authorial text entitled ‘Bulgarian Festival of Mother Earth’. The ‘History of Bread’ cycle was donated to NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ and, as the author himself said: ‘It [bread] is a gift from God so that people can share the fruits of their labour with other people…’. The Fund has presented the exhibition many times in Bulgaria and abroad.
During the event, third-graders from the town’s Sts Cyril and Methodius Primary School presented a dramatisation of a fairy tale relating to bread, and performed Bulgarian folk dances.
Atanas Simov Katchamakoff (1889–1984) was born in Lyaskovets. He graduated in Sculpture from the Academy of Arts in Sofia in 1923, under Prof. Ivan Lazarov. In 1924, he left Bulgaria and went to Paris, and the following year settled New York. Through NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’, he donated his artworks to his native Lyaskovets and to the National Gallery.
The current exhibition is dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the Fund’s establishment and can be seen until 2 June 2026.