March 8 – July 28
Valuable masterpieces of Romanian art, remarkable stories, impressive collections and great masters: Grigorescu, Tonitza, Luchian, Pallady, Baba, Petrașcu, Mützner, Ciucurencu, Dărăscu, Ressu, Iser, Piliuță, Stoenescu.
One of the most important interwar art collections is coming to Art Safari. Grigorescu, Tonitza, Luchian, Pallady, Baba, Petrașcu, Mützner, Ciucurencu, Dărăscu, Ressu, Iser and Piliuță are the great masters that Doctor Gheorghe Vintilă gave to the museum in Topalu, The Secret Museum that you can now discover at Art Safari.
Eustațiu Stoenescu (1884, Craiova –1957, New York) was an artist with a remarkable international career and a vast work, insufficiently known after the communist period, as the authorities erased him from the art history books. He was considered one of the greatest portraitists in Europe of his time, but he also painted, in local tradition, landscapes and still lifes, all of them impressive through their artistic value.
The Romanian master has been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, and his works, especially his portraits, have found their way into significant international collections in France, Italy, USA, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. He made portraits of King Ferdinand, King Carol II, King Michael I, Queen Elena and many other country leaders of Europe, as well as many personalities of the interwar period, from aristocrats and people of society to athletes and government officials.
He participated in three editions of the Venice Biennale, including the 1938 edition, when the Romanian Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale was inaugurated. The Art Safari exhibition reveals the complex personality of this valuable artist who enjoyed success both in the country and abroad, particularly in Paris and New York.
Kings, queens, leaders, politicians, athletes, scholars, as well as other important personalities are brought together in an anniversary exhibition. Portraiture has always been a witness to history. Over the years, celebrities and personalities have been immortalised for posterity, from providential people, like Nicolae Bălcescu and Tudor Vladimirescu, to famous athletes, like Gheorghe Hagi and Nadia Comăneci. The portraits in this exhibition are mostly from museum collections, from the National History Museum of Romania to the National Military Museum, and most of them are displayed in front of the public for the first time.
Supported by:
The street that gathered the most important artists of post-war Romania through its famous studios, which over time became creative spaces, school for beginners, bohemian centres and salerooms for collectors. Corneliu Baba, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Ion Nicodim, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Vasile Gorduz and Georgeta Năpăruș are some of the artists who created here.
On the 100th anniversary of the painter’s birth, the exhibition brings to the fore the process of the permanent construction of the pictorial discourse by putting together a series of techniques, from sketching to painting.