ABSTRACT
The distancing from avant-garde art practices of the early twentieth century, which were repressed in the mid-1920s, is just one part of the explanation. Rereading Bulgarian articles written by official critics at that time as well as publications by art critics and artists from the late 1950s and the 1960s, who were less involved with ideological tasks, it becomes apparent that the attitudes to art from different countries on the Western side of the Iron Curtain were ambiguous. The publications presenting Western European and American art in the Bulgarian press represented a directed effort made by the ideologues of the authorities. In conclusion, in Bulgaria during communist rule the publications on art in the USA were mostly created by authors connected with official management of local artistic life and ideology of the authorities. Critical publications by Bulgarian art critics on artistic practices in Western Europe and the USA only appeared in 1980s, and even they were more of an exception.
