Chavdar Mutafov (; September 19, 1899 – March 10, 1954) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n architect and writer, considered to be one of the leading

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

writers in his country during the period between the two world wars. Mutafov was born in

Sevlievo Sevlievo ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in north-central Bulgaria, part of Gabrovo Province. Sevlievo is known as one of the wealthiest towns in Bulgaria owing to the well developed local economy, high employment rate and maj ...

. He studied engineering in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

from 1908 to 1914. He married Fani Popova and the couple continued their education in Munich during the 1920s, Mutafov studying architecture, before returning to Bulgaria. Mutafov worked as an architect. He published essays in the monthly journal ''Zlatorog'' and also gave talks on modern art, music, film and industrial design. Besides his essays and novel, Mutafov also wrote short stories and

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

s. His writing was subject to censorship under the communist regime in Bulgaria. He died in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

in 1954. A selection of his essays was published in 1993.

Selected works

Source: * ''Zelenijat kon'' (The green horse), essay (1920) * ''”Diletant'' (Dilettante), novel (1926)

References

1899 births 1954 deaths Bulgarian male short story writers Bulgarian novelists Male novelists Bulgarian male writers 20th-century Bulgarian novelists 20th-century Bulgarian writers 20th-century Bulgarian short story writers {{Bulgaria-writer-stub