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bogomil nikolov

Biography

Bogomil Nikolov Dimitrov was born on December 18, 1943 in the village of Brashlyanitsa, Pleven district.
In 1964 he graduated from the Fine Arts High School in Sofia, majoring in Painting.
From 1966 to 1968 he studied Monumental Painting at the National Academy of Arts in the class of Prof. Georgi Bogdanov, in 1971 graduated from the Moscow Higher Institute of Applied Arts /Stroganov/ where he made his first medals. In 1976 he organized his first solo exhibition "Medal, Plaque, Small Relief" in Sofia, this exhibition is the first of its kind in Bulgaria.
From 1971 to 1991 Nikolov was a Head of the art studio for Metal and Jewelry at the Art Fund of the Union of Bulgarian Artists. In 1996 he won national competition for Assoc. Professor in the Metal Department of the National Academy of Arts, and in 2002 he was awarded with the scientific title Professor; from 1996 to 2011 he was the Head of the Metal Department at the Academy.
Apart from the medal sculpture and the coin design, Bogomil Nikolov also works in the field of painting, applied arts and graphic design.
His works are in the collections of museums and galleries around the world, such as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art in Moscow, the Royal Medal Collection in Stockholm and many others.
He has won the Annual Marsh Award and the Presidential Medal of the British Art Medal Society in 2012, a recognition for his creative merit and his efforts to develop and popularize the medal art. Bogomil Nikolov is the author of more than 600 medal works. He has also designed a large number of collection coins, medals, state and institutional insignia of honors. /Paisii Hilendarski, Golden Age, Golden Griffin awards and many more/.
In addition to his personal creative success, he has received high international recognition in the field of art education and the organization of major national and international events and art projects. As a pioneer of Bulgarian medal sculpture, he not only created a national art school, but contributed to making Bulgaria one of the leading countries in this field. As a result, FIDEM /International Art Medal Federation/ assigned Prof. Bogomil Nikolov to organize the 33rd World Congress of the Federation in Sofia in 2014.

In 2018, the National Academy of Art organized a retrospective exhibition of the artist in the Academia gallery on the occasion of his 60-year creative activity. At the official opening of the exhibition Prof. Nikolov received the most prestigious ANS World Award Sanford Saltus, for outstanding achievements in medal sculpture. The award was presented by Ute Wartenberg Kagan, Executive Director of the Sanford Saltus Committee.

SELECTED AWARDS

1977 Second Prize, International Medal Art Symposium, Nyiregyhaza
1979 Silver Meda, International Biennial of Small Sculpture, Ravenna
1985 Grand Prix, First International Quadrennial of Medal Art, Kremnica
1988 Grand Prix, First International Biennial of Unique Medal, Warsaw
1992 Third Prize, State Coat of Arms Competition
1996 Artist of the Year, Prize of Lessedra Art Gallery, Sofia
2000 The Special Prize, awarded by Yugoslavian National Art Association
(6th International Biennial of Miniature Arts, Yugoslavia)
2010 FIDEM at 70' Prize for his work to promote the art of the medal
2012 Marsh Annual Award and The BAMS President Medal ... in recognition of his long and distinguished record as a maker of art medals...
2015 SOFIA PRIZE, Annual Prize of Municipality of Sofia
2017 J. SANFORD SALTUS AWARD OF ANS for Excellence in Medallic Art

WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

National Art Gallery, Sofia
British Museum, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
State Museum, Berlin
Museum of German History, Berlin
Hermitage, Sanct-Peterburg
Slovakian National Gallery, Bratislava
Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm
Foreign Art Museum, Riga
Museum of the Medallic Art, Wroclaw
Centro Dantesco Museum, Ravenna, etc.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

The British Museum
Bogomil Nikolov
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG132765
Victoria & Albert Museum
Bogomil Nikolov
www.collections.vam.ac.uk/name/nikolov-bogomil
Bogomil Nikolov
Sanford Saltus Award to Bogomil Nikolov www.numismatics.org/pr-saltus-nikolov
Philip Attwood
The BAMS New Medallists
The British Art Medal Trust, London, 2012
Rowena Loverance
Christian Art /in the British Museum/
The British Museum Press, 2008
Bogomil Nikolov
Medallic Sculpture,
Album, Sofia 2014
Encyclopedia of Bulgarian Fine Arts
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1983
Ivan Kanchev
The Artists Talk
interview on Bulgarian sculpture,
Sofia 2020, Volume 1
Nadia Rozeva Green
Prof. Bogomil Nikolov's
Medallic Sculpture Studio
THE MEDAL magazine, Autumn 2004
Alla Kossareva
The Art of the Medal
Prosveshtenie Publishing
House, Moscow 1981
Irina Kolbasova
Prof. Bogomil Nikolov -
founder of the Bulgarian Medal School
Russian Numismatic Conference,
Moscow, 2015
Irina Kolbasova
Medal art in Bulgaria
NBU, 2020