Icons, between religious art and popular traditions
Since the 17th century, Romanian peasants have been painting icons on wood and glass. They were intended to protect their homes. The icons on wood are part of the Byzantine heritage that still marks the region. True objects of worship, they are grouped together in iconostases in churches and monasteries. In Moldavia, at Voroneț or Moldovița for example, many of the latter can be seen and feature icons typical of the Brâncovan style, forming admirable wooden lacework. Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714) was a Wallachian prince who gave his name to a certain style of iconostasis, an example of which can be admired at Saint-Spiridon Church in Bucharest.
Icons on glass(icoane pe sticlă) from Transylvania are particularly famous. They were created after the region became part of the Habsburg territories in 1699. That same year, in the village of Nicula, a peasant swore he had seen tears running down the face of the Virgin Mary depicted on an icon. Nicula thus became the object of pilgrimages by neighboring peasants, who began to take icons home with them, and to make their own. Thus, in the space of barely half a century, icoanăpe sticlă spread throughout Transylvania.
The depictions of religious scenes mixed with popular beliefs and everyday elements are simple and naive, which is what makes them so charming. These icons can be admired in most of the country's museums. The two most famous collections are those in the village of Sibiel (near Sibiu) and the monastery of Nicula (near Gherla). But you can also find some very fine ones in the hands of the locals themselves.
From religious painting to modernity
As elsewhere in Europe, the plastic arts have long been linked to religion. Until the 18th century, two traditions prevailed in Romania: Byzantine and Western. For centuries, church walls were covered with paintings, and famous artists pushed the art of the icon to its highest level. The wall paintings in the princely church of Curtea de Argeș (1366) bear witness to a strong Byzantine tradition. The best-known were painted two centuries later, on the walls of countless monasteries in Bucovina. These harmonious, refined compositions are true masterpieces. But the work that most closely adheres to Orthodox traditions, while at the same time incorporating some Romanian particularities, is the illuminated Tetraevangile by Gavril Uric (14th-15th centuries), produced in 1429.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Western influences found increasing resonance in Romanian artistic circles. The exclusively religious character of art was gradually abandoned, techniques evolved and the portrait genre made its appearance. The first great names in Romanian painting were strongly influenced by the French, Italian and Austrian schools, if not directly trained by them, as was the case with Theodor Aman (1831-1891). But the Romanian artist who probably left the greatest mark on the history of painting is Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907). He created original works inspired by peasant folklore and Impressionism, and was the first to introduce landscape into the Romanian plastic arts. A pupil of the Czech Anton Chladek (1794-1882), he produced his first works as a painter of churches, such as those in Băicoi, Căldărușani, and the Zamfira monastery. He then moved to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts before frequenting the Barbizon group: this stay with the Impressionists lightened his palette. He returned to Romania in 1869 and, with the benefit of his experience, travelled the countryside in search of subjects. He produced some superb rural scenes (portraits of peasant women, landscapes) for which he is now renowned. Although the luminosity of Impressionist canvases can be seen, his style is more realistic and distinguished by broad brushstrokes. Alongside Andreescu and Ștefan Luchian (1868-1916), he brought Romania into the modern age. Among the great Romanian artists of the 20thcentury, the genius of Nicolae Tonitza (1886-1940) stands out, who brought a harmonious aesthetic to his paintings, or the surrealism of Victor Brauner (1903-1966), who combined the unusual with a mastery of materials and colors, as in L'Envoyeur (1937) or La Coupe d'amour (1965).
Sculpture, the nation of the monumental
Romania's most prominent sculptors are at the forefront of innovative artistic trends. In certain parks, near museums or in the country's many art galleries, it is now possible to discover impressive works, such as those by Dimitrie Paciurea (1873-1932) and Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957), who must be pronounced "brüncouche" for the Romanians to understand you. One of the pioneers of modern abstract sculpture, Brâncui propelled Romania onto the European scene. An unschooled child, he learned woodworking at a very early age, a craft that was well developed in his native region, as evidenced by Gorj's carved doors, whose motifs inspired him. After studying crafts and attending the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, he left for Paris in 1890. His modest income prevented him from using transport, so he made the journey on foot. On arrival, he joined Auguste Rodin's studio. His first original work was Le Baiser (1907), in which two embracing adolescents form a small volume of symmetrical lines. Other significant works include Princesse X (1916) and Mademoiselle Pogany (1912). In all his works, we find the artist's fascination with symbols: the egg for creation(Le Commencement du monde, 1924) or flight for freedom(Oiseau dans l'espace, 1923). His work is equally at home in stone and polished bronze. In 1937-1938, Brâncuși created a sculptural ensemble for the town of Târgu Jiu, whose four pieces(La Table silencieuse, La Porte du baiser, L'Allée des chaises and La Colonne sans fin) are dedicated to the memory of soldiers who died in the First World War. Many of his works are now on display in museums in the USA, and in France, his studio has been refurbished on the forecourt of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In Romania, you can follow in his footsteps by visiting his native village, Târgu Jiu or the Art Museums of Craiova and Bucharest.
Between the wars, a new generation of Romanian artists emerged. Among them were painters Lucian Grigorescu (1894-1965), Gheorghe Petrașcu (1872-1949), Nicolae Tonitza (1886-1940), avant-gardist Victor Brauner (1903-1966) and Matisse's friend Theodor Pallady (1871-1956). Despite the censorship and strict art regulations imposed by the Communist regime, some artists managed to adapt and make a name for themselves. Such was the case of sculptor Ion Jalea (1887-1983). In the 1970s, art, provided it met certain standards, was even strongly encouraged by the authorities, notably through the "sculpture camps", annual open-air sculpture competitions. The results can still be seen today, sometimes in the open air, as in Măgura (see "Munténie - Buzău region"), Arcuș or Buteni.
Contemporary art under the influence of modernity
Bucharest is the place to be if you want to get to grips with contemporary art in Romania. The National Museum of Contemporary Art recently opened its doors in a new glass wing of the Parliament building, considered one of the largest administrative buildings in the world! It features the talented Aurel Vlad (b. 1954), author of Cortège des sacrifiés, a group of statues in the courtyard of the Sighetu Marmației Memorial.
More recently, a young painter has made a name for himself on the national scene. The dark canvases of Victor Man (b. 1974) follow in the footsteps of 18th-century landscape painting and the use of the black mirror, or miroir de Claude. This small convex mirror, tinted with a dark color, usually lampblack, enabled the painter to isolate the subject from its surroundings, while neutralizing the colors. In this way, he could more easily determine a frame and more accurately appreciate the different tonal values (contrasts). Victor Man took up this process again, not for its original function, but for the quality it brought to his subject. He thus paints dark portraits, with cold, muted colors in dominant shades of blue and green. The Cluj-born artist is one of Romania's best-known contemporary visual artists, and represented his country at the 2007 Venice Biennale alongside Cristi Pogacean (b. 1980), Mona Vatamanu (b. 1968) and Florin Tudor (b. 1974). In 2014, he was named Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year, an award that led to an exhibition at Berlin's DB Kunsthalle the same year, and which subsequently traveled across Europe, including to Warsaw.
From the tradition of photojournalism to a new anthropology of images
The history of Romanian photography stands out from the rest of Europe in that it is a pioneer in the field of photojournalism, and more specifically war reporting. After the creation of the first Romanian illustrated periodical in 1860(llustrațiunea Jurnal Universal), it wasn't until the War of Independence (1877-1878) and the conflict between Turkey and Russia that press photography really took off in the country. Photography offered the unprecedented possibility of depicting and following the conflict in an illustrated way, through numerous portraits of opposing officers or soldiers who distinguished themselves by their feats of arms. Among these photojournalists, Carol Popp Szathmári (1812-1887) is considered Europe's first war photographer. He distributed his photographs through the publication Souvenir de resbel, illustrating the 1877 campaign. Most of them now belong to the National Library of Romania - although some are held by museums in New York and London. The National Museum of Romanian Art in Bucharest is one of the few places to offer exhibitions dedicated to the medium. During the summer, the Bucharest Municipal Museum organizes the International Salon of Photographic Art at the Suțu Palace. A wonderful opportunity to discover one of the city's oldest aristocratic mansions.
A new generation of Romanian photographers is making a name for itself at various festivals dedicated to the medium across Europe, including the 2019 edition of the Circulation festival of young European photography at Centquatre-Paris. Felicia Simion's Ethnographies series was exhibited there. Her documentary style is reminiscent of Sergei Prokudin Gorski's early 20th-century photographs - a survival of folklore in contemporary Romania, a subject in line with the artist's specialization in ethnology. The Bucharest University of the Arts is the breeding ground for this new Romanian scene. In a country undergoing restructuring, it was founded after independence in 1995. The Șovăială brothers, Mihai (b. 1987) and Horațiu (b. 1993), originally from Transylvania, are also graduates. Their approach is both conceptual and documentary, and they both take a critical look at the decades following the fall of the Soviet bloc, and their imprints on the national territory. Horațiu's landscapes highlight the naivety of a people who believed that new infrastructures would bring a wind of freedom. Mihai, for his part, is interested in the deindustrialization of the country in the post-communist period, and tries to give a place back to forgotten places and neglected territories.
Street Art, between protest movement and institutional art
As elsewhere in the world, street art is a controversial subject, considered vandalism by some and a cultural expression to be encouraged by others. In Romania, street art developed as a form of urban resistance, with the first tags and graffiti appearing in the early 1990s to denounce the exactions of the Communist state. Although Ceaușescu is no longer in power at the dawn of the new decade, the grip of his regime remains perceptible everywhere. This omnipresence of social control strongly affects relations between citizens, who denounce each other. Bucharest's rebellious youth began to express themselves through graffiti, denouncing the abuse of power by local authorities and encouraging Romanians to unite in the face of this ever-present threat. One of the first graffiti to spread across the country's walls was "Take down the nightmare", in reference to Nicolae Ceaușescu. Over the years, graffiti continues to denounce the corruption of Romania's political class, comparing the cruelty of its leaders to legendary figures like Vlad the Impaler. More recently, certain protest movements are spreading across the country via the use of stencils, like the Salvați Roșia Montana environmental movement.
Today, although some artists continue to relay political protests, street art has become an aesthetic practice in its own right, often devoid of political message, but apt to embellish Romania's gray streets. In the town of Târgu Mureș, for example, the vast Digital Transylvania urban creation project was launched to revitalize the town and turn it into a tourist destination. It was initiated by the Green Art Tour association and carried out in collaboration with high school students. As a result, the steps of the city's staircases now feature traditional Romanian motifs as well as portraits of celebrities such as Constantin Brâncuși, Liviu Rebreanu and George Enescu - a way of displaying the national cultural identity loud and clear.
In Craiova, institutional street art projects have also become widespread, like its crosswalks transformed into keyboard keys or to which unexpected decorative details have been added. The city of Iași's streetcars have also been decorated: each of them is now unique. We'll particularly remember the Literature Tram because of the portraits of poets and writers that cover its blue bodywork, but also because passengers can exchange books on it.
Although street art is widespread throughout the country, Bucharest is by far the city with the greatest concentration of artists and murals. The capital is home to some of the country's most impressive works. One of the best known is the Sweet Damage Crew mural on one of the façades of Eremia Grigorescu Street.
