Quiet Riots sketches (7-10)
I Will Never Become You/ Никога няма да бъда теб - pencil drawing on 300lb Fabriano Artistico paper
Size: 30 x 40 cm, Anton Terziev, 2019
from Quiet Riots sketches (8-10) Credit Svetoslav Todorov - writer, editor, correspondent
Photo: © the artist.
QR paintings - 1, 2, 3, 4
Part of QUIET RIOTS solo show at Contemporary Space, Varna, 2019 - curated by Daniela Radeva
Nicolai Nedelchev collection
Anton Terziev’s pencil drawing *I Will Never Become You* is a striking study of generational distance, creative tension, and the uneasy dialogue between tradition and youth. Executed with deft handling of graphite and an almost sculptural attention to shading, this work operates on multiple levels: as a commentary on the ways we regard art from the past, and as a reflection on how younger generations grapple with inherited cultural legacies.
At first glance, the eye is drawn to the contrast between the young boy—complete with baseball cap and casual T-shirt—and the solemn, crouching sculpture on the pedestal before him. Terziev’s balanced composition situates the child in a leftward stance, creating a diagonal energy that leads us toward the sculpture on the right. This diagonal thrust also frames the hammer in the boy’s hand as a tool charged with ambiguous power: is he about to create, or to destroy?
The drawing’s technical skill is evident in the cross-hatched shadows and carefully rendered textures. Terziev employs a confident pencil line to delineate both the figure of the boy and the three-dimensional form of the sculpture. The use of light and dark pencil strokes gives the composition a strong sense of volume. While the background remains softly suggested, the crisp outlines and rich tonal gradients of the central figures emphasize their tension-filled relationship.
The piece’s title, *I Will Never Become You*, is provocative. It implies a dialogue—perhaps even an act of rebellion—between the young observer and the traditional sculpted figure. The hammer could represent a generational hammer of judgment, a tool that can either refine art (as a sculptor would) or destroy it.
The sculpture itself, with its stooped, laborious pose, seems reminiscent of monumental figures in 20th-century social realist or existential art, evoking toil or burden. In contrast, the boy’s casual attire and posture capture the contemporary era’s relaxed but inquisitive stance. The juxtaposition of these two figures sets up a tension between reverence and irreverence, tradition and progress, or even old identities and new aspirations.
From an art-historical perspective, Terziev’s drawing can be situated within a long lineage of works that depict the interplay between observer and artwork—think of Honoré Daumier’s satirical sketches of museum visitors, or even more modern pieces that question the role of the spectator in the creative process. Yet Terziev adds a twist by casting a child as the one holding the symbolic power. This choice underscores the innocence or fearlessness of youth when confronted with established norms and legacies.
The tension in *I Will Never Become You* also recalls the Romantic notion of the artist as a rebel confronting tradition. Here, it is not necessarily the artist but the next generation confronting the cultural artifacts of the past. The child’s presence, armed with a tool of potential transformation, suggests that each new generation inevitably shapes or reshapes what it inherits.
Terziev’s confident pencil work echoes classical drawing techniques, yet the subject matter is unequivocally contemporary. The piece comments on the very act of looking at art—how we question, judge, and sometimes reject or reshape what came before. The tension between destructive potential and creative possibility is what gives the drawing its enduring potency.
In a broader sense, the work also reflects our current cultural moment, in which younger voices often seek to redefine social and artistic values. The child’s direct gaze toward the sculpture implies an awareness that identity and creative legacy are contested grounds. The statement “I will never become you” hints at both an act of self-definition and a refusal to be molded by existing frameworks.
Anton Terziev’s *I Will Never Become You* is a deceptively simple pencil drawing that resonates with complex themes: the weight of artistic heritage, the irreverence of youth, and the power of personal agency. Through meticulous draftsmanship and a thought-provoking juxtaposition of figures, Terziev invites viewers to reflect on their own relationship to tradition, creation, and transformation. The result is an artwork that feels at once classical in technique and decisively modern in its provocative commentary on the evolving dialogue between past and future.
"In this series things move on several layers, with different speed and direction. The title itself contains a paradox. The idea came from my wish to throw a bridge over to my father, at the end of his life. To repair our failed connection by putting myself in his shoes. A peculiar archeology of childhood in search of lost time became integrated into the background. And on the foreground are the forms of resistance, which are of great interest to me for being the light part of every person’s biography. When do they become conscious, what paths they follow, how do they entice us. That’s why I put my son in open situations of generational and cultural dissonance. These are knots, which I’d like to untie and reconfigure myself."
The Fire Ain't Burning If It's Not WithinYou/ Огънят не гори, ако не е в теб - Anton Terziev, 2019
pencil drawing on 300lb Fabriano Artistico paper. Size: 30 x 40 cm, from Quiet Riots sketches (9-10) Credit Svetoslav Todorov - writer, editor, correspondent
Part of QUIET RIOTS solo show at Contemporary Space, Varna, 2019 - curated by Daniela Radeva
Photo: © the artist. Courtesy of the artist
QR paintings - 1, 2, 3, 4
I'll Be My Own Monument/ Сам съм си паметник - pencil drawing on 300lb Fabriano Artistico paper
Size: 30 x 40 cm, from Quiet Riots sketches (7-10), 2019 Credit Svetoslav Todorov - writer, editor, correspondent
Anton Terziev, Photo: © the artist. Courtesy of the artist
Part of QUIET RIOTS solo show at Contemporary Space, Varna, 2019 - curated by Daniela Radeva