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Saturday April 15, 2023
Art Safari, the largest art event in Romania, becomes a seasonal event from this year. The first season of Art Safari will remain open until May 14th and will offer art lovers four major exhibitions dedicated to the Romanian painter Ion Theodorescu-Sion, 42 Spanish masters of 19th-century art, the winners of the French art prize “Marcel Duchamp” and the dedicated to the ultra-contemporary Romanian art scene. Works of art worth 75 million euros are now on display in the Dacia România Palace in Bucharest’s old town.
Adventurous painter and war hero
The famous painter Ion Theodorescu-Sion (1882 – 1939) was a prominent figure on the Romanian art scene of the interwar period. He has tried and synthesized various art movements such as Impressionism, Divisionism, Post-Impressionism, Pointilism and Realism. With 14 personal exhibitions and participation in group exhibitions in all the important public art salons in Bucharest and in Barcelona, The Hague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, New York and at the Venice Art Biennale in 1938, Ion Theodorescu-Sion obviously built a successful career.
He trained at the Bucharest School of Fine Arts and continued his education at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. His thirst for adventure drove the painter to countries such as France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and even Algeria, not only for plein air painting but also for the opportunity to fight. So he wanted to join the Foreign Legion in Algeria and finally took part in the Second Balkan War in 1913 as a combat officer in Bulgaria. There he discovered the picturesque coastal town of Baltschik/Balcic, which inspired a whole series of paintings.
During World War I, Ion Theodorescu-Sion took part in the battles in Brăila and Northern Dobrogea, which he immortalized on canvas after the end of the war, and was subsequently awarded several medals and decorations, including the “Crown of Romania” with the rank of officer, for his bravery .
Influenced by the nationally desired unification of the historical Romanian provinces, village life is the focus of general artistic interest and Ion Theodorescu-Sion paints compositions with peasants and traditional Romanian subjects from a monumental perspective, with the characters (mainly women at the fountain, bathing, resting outdoors) are presented imposingly and proudly. Commissioned by the Romanian royal family, the painter created four large works that are integrated into the mural painting in front of the throne room in the Royal Palace in Bucharest, the current art museum.
The varied Ion Theodorescu Sion exhibition, curated by Elena Olariu, is the largest since World War II and offers art lovers many masterfully painted female portraits and a few self-portraits, still lifes, village genre scenes, but also some cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and compositions with soldiers.
42 times Spanish passion
The exhibition “Masters of Spanish Painting. The 19th Century and the Beginnings of Impressionism” will be presented by Dr. Helena Alonso is curating and is the largest exhibition of Spanish art in Romania to date. In cooperation with the Diocese Museum in Barcelona and private collectors, the paintings, watercolors and graphics by 42 Spanish masters were brought together at “Art Safari”.
While Raimundo de Madrazo, José Gallegos y Arnosa, Juan José Gárate y Clavero, Pablo Salinas Teruel, Joaquín Agrasot etc. paint religious compositions and Spanish genre scenes with strong female figures and bullfighters, courtyards, street scenes and Moorish castles, other painters such as Martin Rico y Ortega depict cityscapes from Venice and Paris. These contrast with the oriental images of Mariano Fortuny, José Benlliure, José Navarro Llorens and others, who painted the inhabitants and landscapes of Morocco and Algeria under the radiant Mediterranean light. Joaquín Agrasot, Luis Masriera and Joaquín Sorolla were also inspired by the image of the Orient when they depicted odalisques dressed in rich silks with seductive looks in their workshops.
Marcel Duchamp Prize Winner
The exhibition “The Memorial Palace. Focus on the French art scene, which was awarded the Marcel Duchamp Prize” will be presented by Daria de Beauvais and Dr. Lisa Colin curates and shows works by established, internationally recognized contemporary artists.
The Marcel Duchamp Prize is one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for contemporary art. This has been awarded annually since 2000 by the Association for the International Promotion of French Art (ADIAF), which consists of 300 art collectors, four visual artists who come from France or work in France, together with a cash prize of 35,000 euros.
The works of the winners are classified according to the themes ghost, echo, folklore and renewal. Under the theme “Ghost”, visitors will discover works by Farah Atassi, Katinka Bock and Tatiana Trouvé, presenting objects that evoke memories and act as the only evidence of human presence.
In the case of Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, the works from the “Echo” section follow the history of a place and its successive occupation.
In search of folklore and authenticity, the paintings by Farah Atassi and the sculptures by Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel reinterpret art history and traditional techniques. The photographs of Mircea Cantor, the only Romanian artist to have won the Marcel Duchamp Prize, pay homage to the hands of Romanian conceptual artist Geta Brătescu, while Clément Cogitore’s “Morning Stroke” presents age-old customs and rituals through a technique that Connects cinema and contemporary art.
The works exhibited under the theme of “renewal” illustrate how the buds of the future emerge from the roots of the past. Mircea Cantor and Michel Blazy give everyday objects such as aluminum cans or sneakers a new life and use them to create the colorful outline of a window rose or a flower pot.
What’s new in the art scene?
As part of the exhibition “Young Blood 2.0. What’s new in the art scene?”, 65 young artists from Romania and Moldova will represent the ultra-contemporary art scene at “Art Safari” with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute ICR. These are expressed through painting, video art, digital art, through to installations and textile art.
The artist Marta Mattioli illustrates with her work “Rootless” the relationship to constantly evolving technologies, social media platforms, the false impression of closeness they give to users and the feelings mediated by devices.
Emma Păvăloaia deals with human fragility in a society geared towards hypertechnology, consumption and sensual pleasures. In the work “Nature for Sale. Easy to care for, almost impossible to kill” she depicts a cactus planted in a pot in front of a shop window which she passed and which was for sale at a very high price. “I think I was struck not only by the paradox that the essential value of the plant was reduced to pure commercial value, but also by the description of the plant’s main quality as ‘not requiring attention. This in the context of a society that is constantly endangering nature,” emphasizes the artist.
At Art Safari, Alexandru Ranga exhibits an installation made up of 15 metal rats. The artist has been dealing with these animals for several years and admits that he never tires of observing the different sensations that his metal rats evoke in the public.
The exhibitions can be visited daily until May 14, Thursday to Sunday, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday night tours, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., at the Dacia România Palace, in Bucharest’s Old Town (18 Lipscani Street). -20) can be visited. Tickets are available at the entrance or at tickets.artsafari.ro.
