NMMU: Could you tell us something about the Gueorgui Vassilev Collection?
Maria Vassileva: Gueorgui Vassilev is a financier, businessman, collector, and philanthropist. He has lived and worked in Switzerland for over 30 years. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Board of the Katzarovi Foundation, which awards scholarships to Bulgarian students, researchers, and lecturers who wish to further their knowledge at a Swiss university-level institution. Although geographically distant from Bulgaria, Konstantin Katzarov never severs his ties with the country he calls "Eternal Bulgaria." This is also the belief of Gueorgui Vassilev, who strives to promote Bulgarian culture around the world. His interest in Papazoff is linked to their shared fate as individuals who sought to realize their potential beyond their homeland’s borders but remained forever connected to it. The collection began about twenty years ago. Its primary focus is the art of Georges Papazoff (it includes over 100 works), acquired mainly through auctions and Parisian galleries. The collection covers all periods of the artist's career and includes paintings, drawings, and prints. It also features works by Jules Pascin, Christo, and other Bulgarian artists.

NMMU: What is your role within the Collection?
Maria Vassileva: I studied the collection after being invited by Gueorgui Vassilev to write a monograph on the artist, which was published in Bulgarian, French, and English in 2021. This naturally led to the idea for a large retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery in Sofia in 2022. My ambition is for Papazoff’s name to regain its deserved place in art history.

NMMU: How many times have you visited Zagreb?
Maria Vassileva: I have had excellent professional relations for years with Janka Vukmir, President of the Institute for Contemporary Art and co-founder and organiser of the Radoslav Putar Award. I am one of the organizers of the BAZA Award for contemporary art in Bulgaria – part of the same award network. We have had professional meetings in Zagreb, and I have always been left with a great impression of the city and its people, as well as the professional level of art and art institutions. Vanya Babić and I were on the jury of the ESSL Awards for several years in a row. I have worked multiple times with the artist Igor Eskinja. I know many talented Croatian artists, also thanks to the curatorial residency in Split, where I was invited by Branko Franceschi.

NMMU: Have the Papazoff paintings being presented at the Josip Račić Gallery been previously exhibited in similar shows across Europe or internationally? If so, where and when?
Maria Vassileva: Some of these works have been exhibited at: Galerie Françoise Tournié, Paris; Galerie Antoine Laurentin, Paris; Galerie de Seine, Paris; Galerie Anne Lacombe, Paris; Petit Palais Museum, Geneva, Switzerland; Maison de la Culture et des Loisirs, St-Etienne, France; National Gallery for Foreign Art, Sofia; National Gallery, Sofia.

NMMU: What are the current market prices of Papazoff’s works, and which of his paintings has reached the highest price so far?
Maria Vassileva: Papazoff’s works enjoy a very warm market reception. The price range is in the tens of thousands of Euros, with a steady upward trend. The highest price reached so far has been for the painting: Hommage au Douanier Rousseau, Le rêve de la bohémienne endormie, 1957.

NMMU: What kind of family background did Papazoff come from?
Maria Vassileva: He came from a close-knit merchant family in the small town of Yambol, in southeastern Bulgaria. He had five brothers and sisters. It was a tradition for the youngest child to be sent abroad to study and potentially develop the family business internationally. The same fate befell another Bulgarian artist—Jules Pascin from the town of Vidin. Both, however, followed their calling to become artists. In fact, it was Pascin who introduced Papazoff to the artistic circles in Paris.

NMMU: Have you had the opportunity to meet any members of Papazoff’s family?
Maria Vassileva: I have spoken with some of his distant relatives in Bulgaria who, unfortunately, had no connection to Papazoff or his legacy.

NMMU: Do you know who his first love was? Did he have a wife and children?
Maria Vassileva: Yes. Papazoff published his autobiography Sur les pas du peinture (1971), in which he writes about his first great love, Martha, whom he met in Prague but who died very young. In France, he married the Bulgarian Beatrice Palazova, with whom he had a daughter (Myriam Papazoff—also an artist) and a stepson.

NMMU: To whom did he dedicate his first painting, and is it known where that painting is today?
Maria Vassileva: Early works from his time at the Institute of Architecture in Prague are housed at the "Georges Papazoff" Art Gallery in Yambol. They were donated by art historian Kiril Krustev, who met Papazoff in the 1970s at his home in Vence, France, and wrote a book about him. There is a preserved story about the painting Horses (1923), which was part of the major and prestigious Berlin Art Exhibition (Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung). The painting was purchased but has since disappeared from trace.

NMMU: In your opinion, what is the greatest contribution or significance of this Bulgarian painter and writer—both in the context of the time in which he created and in terms of the legacy he left for today’s and future generations?
Maria Vassileva: Papazoff's contribution to the development of modern movements in Europe, and Surrealism in particular, is undoubtedly significant. He was among the first to experiment with the technique of frottage and with the use of sand in oil painting. From today’s perspective, he stands as an example of a free and uncompromising spirit who followed his own path and did not conform to the prevailing trends. He is an extraordinary example of the dedication of a young man from provincial Bulgaria, who, without speaking foreign languages, managed in just a few years to develop as an artist and integrate into the art scenes of Munich, Berlin, and Paris. His closest friends included André Derain, André Salmon, Paul Éluard, Jules Pascin, Rolf de Maré, Eisenstein, Ilya Ehrenburg, Nils Dardel, Marcel Aymé, Jean Paulhan, Georges Braque. Art knows no barriers, and its power to forge friendships that transcend geographic and social boundaries is something we need now more than ever.

Interviewed by Lana Šetka © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Image: (left) Georges Papazoff, Luminaries, ca. 1926 / oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm / © From the Gueorgui Vassilev Collection (right) Curator Maria Vassileva  during the installation of the exhibition of Bulgarian painter Georges Papazoff at the Josip Račić Gallery - National Museum of Modern Art / Photo: © From the archives of the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb