Aleko Konstantinov and Rudolf Bikkers

Contents 1 Life and career 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading 4.1 In English 5 External links

Life and career

Born to an affluent trader in the Danube River town of Svishtov, he attended the Faculty of Law of the Odessa University (old name-Imperial Novorossiya University), graduating in 1885. He worked as a jurist in Sofia before embarking on a writing career. His first novel (in fact, a collection of relatively independent short stories), Bay Ganyo ("Uncle Ganyo"), describes the travels through Western Europe of an itinerant peddler of rose oil and rugs. Though impertinent and clumsy, the nevertheless ingenious Bay Ganyo has been seen as a mirror for a modernizing Bulgaria. At the beginning of the novel Bay Ganyo is seen mainly as trading rose oil while at the end he is portrayed as a political man. His prototype is the Karlovo tradesman Ganyo Somov.

Konstantinov, a cosmopolitan traveler, was the first Bulgarian to write about his visits to Western Europe and America. His visits to the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1889, Prague in 1891 and Chicago in 1893 provided Bulgarian readers, who had recently gained independence from nearly 500 years of Turkish Ottoman oppression, with a portrait of the developed world. To Chicago and Back (where Bay Ganyo appears once again, but only as a third plan person), his travel notes from his American trip, spurred a lasting interest in Chicago, which today boasts the largest concentration of Bulgarian immigrants in the United States. Nowadays there's a bust of the writer in the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library.

Hе was assassinated in 1897 near Radilovo while traveling to Peshtera, most likely by mistake with the intended target being his friend (a local politician), with whom he had changed places in their coach shortly before the fatal shot. However, there exists also a version that his essays, exposing the hidden insidious intentions of the rulers of his day, led to his assassination.

Aleko Konstantinov initiated the tourist movement in Bulgaria. This is why two of Vitosha's hotels are named after him – "Aleko" and "Shtastlivetsa" ("The Lucky Man", the nickname he gave to himself in one of his short stories).

Konstantinov is portrayed on the obverse of the Bulgarian 100 levs banknote, issued in 2003. Aleko Konstantinov's Grave in Sofia Central Cemetery See also Aleko Point

Rudolf Bikkers and Aleko Konstantinov

Rudolf Bikkers, RCA (born April 5, 1943 in Hilversum, Netherlands) is a Canadian painter, printmaker, educator and entrepreneur. Bikkers has had 23 solo shows and participated in 20 group shows in Canada, the United States, Europe, South Africa, China, Japan and Russia.

Contents 1 Career 2 Recognition 3 References 4 External links

Career Rudolf Bikkers and Karel Appel in the studio's of Editions Canada, London, Ontario, Canada 1979

In 1960 at the age of 17 he was the youngest student to be admitted to the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht on a six-year scholarship and graduated with honours in 1966. He studied the cello with Bob Reuling for two years, followed by four years with Chrétien Bonfrère at the Conservatorium of Maastricht. In the summer of 1966 he emigrated to Canada.

From 1967–1969 he taught drawing at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ontario. From 1969–1976 he was Chair of the Printmaking Department at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. In 1975 he established the Master Print Studio “Editions Canada Inc.”, custom printing and publishing many Canadian and international artists, among them Greg Curnoe, Jack Chambers, Edward Bartram, Clark McDougall, Walter Redinger, Claude Breeze, Karel Appel and Paul Jenkins.

In 1983 he became the Chair of Printmaking at OCA, (now OCAD University) in Toronto where he taught until July 1, 2012. Recognition Rudolf Bikkers with Canadian painter Greg Curnoe.

During his career Bikkers has received several awards and honourable mentions, including the A.J. Casson Award. He was elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2000 and received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.

His work is part of many public collections at the AGO, RCM, Banff Arts Centre, National Archives, Art Bank Canada Council, Art Gallery of Windsor, Hamilton Art Gallery, Museum London, Gallery Stratford, Metro Toronto Reference Library, OCAD University, McIntosh Gallery Western, Art Gallery of Mississauga, and Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation.

Among his fundraising initiatives was in 2000 the AIDS (Artists International Direct Support) Portfolio for Sub-Saharan children affected by HIV/AIDS and in 2002 the RCA/EPSON Painters Portfolio.

Rudolf Bikkers and his wife Thera have a son and a daughter, all living in Toronto.
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