In addition to Dimitrov, the interwar period saw the formation of a group of young painters, led by Ivan Milev, who broke away from routine academic composition and advocated the combination of national with modernistic elements. At this time also, Alexander Bozhinov developed cartoon caricature as an art form to be used as a political weapon.
Contemporary art has been guided by the strictures of Socialist Realism as interpreted at different times. Because national or peasant art is always acceptable under these restrictions, artists have used it as an avenue for greater freedom of expression. The influence of peasant icons, for instance, can be seen in the work of many contemporary artists. Peasant motifs, such as the fruits of the earth, are also evident in much of the work. The art most acceptable to the leadership, however, has been the kind of realism that Westerners associate with communist art. Typical of this style is Ilia Petrov's _Partisan Song_, a monumental canvas depicting a group of partisans triumphantly singing after a victory over fascists. Petrov has consistently received official praise for his work, which is seen as "national in form and socialist in content."
Under the influence of Zhivkov's more liberal cultural policy in the 1960s, artists began to show greater variation and creativity in style while retaining the acceptable subject matter for their work. Many experimented with abstracts and other avant-garde forms, but these works were never selected for public showing or purchase by the museums and other state agencies, which are the only significant patrons. The artist, therefore, is usually forced to divide his efforts between those works that will earn a living and those that will give vent to his creative urge.
Although nonrepresentational art is not publicly exhibited, a considerable degree of abstraction became acceptable in the late 1960s. According to observers who have had contact with Bulgarian artists, the public had grown bored with the prescribed style and content of artistic production, and the government could no longer effectively enforce the restrictions. Added to the difficulties of enforcement was the increasing exposure of Bulgarians through tourism to the great variety of contemporary art produced in Western Europe and in some of the other communist countries. The most abstract and avant-garde painter in Bulgaria is Genko Genkov, some of whose paintings hang in the National Gallery in Sofia.