Bucharest Artistic Education and Romanian Art After 1950
Exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the National University of Arts
28 - 29 Nov 2014
BUCHAREST ARTISTIC EDUCATION AND ROMANIAN ART AFTER 1950
Exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the National University of Arts
28 November 2014 – 29 November 2015
Curator: Adrian Guță
Out of the 150 years of existence the National University of Arts in Bucharest is celebrating on this occasion, more than a third of it – the most recent, has been mapped and investigated throughout this exhibition. The unifying criterion for the inevitably diverse and judicious selection has been the relationship each and every one of the selected had with what was known during the 1950s to the 1990s as the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Plastic Arts, called nowadays in short, UNArte. Therefore it is an exhibition that actually brings together both teachers and students, the latter of whom sometimes became teachers in their own right.
The six and a half decades of continuous activity brought to light by this exhibition can roughly be divided into two distinct chapters conjoint on the milestone of 1989. The first chapter was ideologically marked by the coordinates of the totalitarian communist regime; however, the University managed to provide students with a fair level of professional rigour and especially after the stage of socialist realism, with an actual broadening of artistic perspective. The main drives to contribute to the consistency in artistic value for many of the exponents in UNArte’s different generations of students (beside the innate qualities of the students) were the pedagogical and artistic qualities of several dedicated teachers. The art of the 60s and 80s (disregarding the official conformist art) stands to prove this.
The beginning of the 90s brought major changes of title and statute, structure, staff and curriculum; the former institute became an academy, a university in 1998 and finally national university in 2002. The newly appointed younger teachers who were also emerging or fully established artists on the local and international art stage consistently contributed to the acceleration of these transformations.
UNArte is committed today to an on-going process of integration into the European artistic higher education system through educational programs such as ERASMUS, aimed to grow cultural mobility and exchange of best practices for its students. UNA Gallery – the University’s own gallery and an open practice space for students also stands to prove the importance of the curatorial exercise and the experience of being exhibited in the strategy of the University.
It is indeed fair to say that the Romanian art scene is significantly represented and influenced by teachers and former students of UNArte, with no intention of suggesting that the present selection would be in any way a complete and absolute reflection of the entire Romanian contemporary art ensemble.
The exhibition packs an eclectic body of painting, sculpture, drawing, art object, installation, photography and video art spanning on more than one generation of artists whose works had been chosen for the representativeness of discourse in relation to the expression medium.
The selection was made possible with the combined effort of all the institutions involved, whose own collections were a valuable resource and starting point. Namely, in order of the number of works kindly made available: The National Museum of Contemporary Art, The National University of Arts, City of Bucharest Museum, private collections and artist collections.
Considering the title and mission of the exhibition, the selection displays iconic works of both well-established artists and artists who seem to have been almost forgotten, while also uncovering lesser known works or rarely exhibited ones such as diploma projects or works from student years.
The exhibition reveals major trends that used to define and still define our visual arts outside most of the monolithic body of the official communist art (only some interesting reverberations of it have been included). Different flavours of realism, neo-pop and new photorealism coexist with lyrical abstraction, neo-expressionism with stances of conceptual art and to some extend with post-Brancusi shape reductionism in sculpture. Some hints of surrealism blended together with staged photography are clearly traceable in painting and drawing while neo-orthodoxism walks side by side with the rectified readymade. Despite so many variations, a subtle feeling of belonging to a distinct cultural family is dominant at a higher level of perception.
This exhibition does not aim to claim for itself a title of absolute infallibility in terms of Romanian art history even if each and every work presented or perhaps all together as well contribute to this (hi)story. No doubt about it, different approaches to such long time scale and wide range of artist could and should of course apply outside this current curatorial intention.
Artists (RO): Nicolae Alexi, Gheorghe I. Anghel, Carmen Apetrei, George Apostu, Ion Atanasiu Delamare, Cezar Atodiresei , Corneliu Baba, Mihai Balko, Vioara Bara, Constantin Baraschi, Silviu Băiaş, Cătălin Bălescu, Ioana Bătrânu, Ion Bitzan, Constantin Blendea, Catul Bogdan, Bogdan Bordeianu, Irina Botea, Traian Brădean, Geta Brătescu, Mihai Buculei, Aurel Bulacu, Marcel Bunea, Boris Caragea, Ştefan Câlţia, Andrei Chintilă, Alexandru Chira, Francisc Chiuariu, Vlad Ciobanu, Mihai Cismaru, Florin Ciubotaru, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Nistor Coita, Dumitru Cojocaru, Nicolae Comănescu, Alexandra Croitoru, Reka Csapo Dup, Suzana Dan, Elena Boby Dumitrescu, Mircia Dumitrescu, Sorin Dumitrescu, Ion Dumitriu, Darie Dup, Dan Erceanu, Aniela Firon, Constantin Flondor, Dimitrie Găvrilean, Benedict Gănescu, Ion Alin Gheorghiu, Marin Gherasim, Vasile Gorduz, Dumitru Gorzo, Teodor Graur, Vasile Grigore, Ion Grigorescu, Octav Grigorescu, Eugen Gustea, Harry Guttman,Vlad Iacob, Adrian Ilfoveanu, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Gheorghe Iliescu-Călineşti, Nadia Ioan, Costin Ioanid, Ion Irimescu, Gheorghe Ivancenco, Peter Jacobi, Vasile Kazar, Aurora Király, Iosif Király, Nicolae Krassovski, Marius Leonte, Stela Lie, Petru Lucaci, Ethel LukátsBăiaş, Ovidiu Maitec, Henry Mavrodin, Mihai Mănescu, Cornel Medrea, Wanda Mihuleac,Florin Mitroi, Valeriu Mladin, Gili Mocanu, Cosmin Moldovan, Teodor Moraru, Mircea Muntenescu, Ion Lucian Murnu, Georgeta Năpăruş, Paul Neagu, Ion Nicodim,Florin Niculiu,Mihai Oroveanu, Ion Pacea, Christian Paraschiv, Horea Paştina, Alexandru Patatics, Cosmin Paulescu, Neculai Păduraru, Romelo Pervolovici, Constantin Piliuţă, Adrian Pîrvu, Eugen Popa, Constantin Popovici, Marilena Preda Sânc, Florica Prevenda, Peter Pusztai, Silvia Radu, Gheorghe Rasovszky, Cristian Răduţă, Alexandru Rădvan, Dodi Romanaţi, Mihai Rusen, Liviu Russu, Ion Sălişteanu, Mihai Sârbulescu, Elena Scutaru, Marcel Scutaru, Ştefan Sevastre, Doina Simionescu, Ovidiu Simionescu, Donald Simionoiu, Ana Maria Smigelschi, Mircea Spătaru, Dan Stanciu, Ion Stendl, Florin Stoiciu, Dorian Szasz, Ştefan Szönyi, Gheorghe Şaru, Vladimir Şetran, Constantin Şevţov, Napoleon Tiron, Mircea Tohătan, Vasile Tolan, Roman Tolici, Roxana Trestioreanu, Corneliu Vasilescu, Paul Vasilescu, Victor Velculescu, Simona Vilău, Aurel Vlad, Ecaterina Vrana, Sorin Vreme, Vladimir Zamfirescu, Gheorghe Zărnescu, Marian Zidaru.
Exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the National University of Arts
28 November 2014 – 29 November 2015
Curator: Adrian Guță
Out of the 150 years of existence the National University of Arts in Bucharest is celebrating on this occasion, more than a third of it – the most recent, has been mapped and investigated throughout this exhibition. The unifying criterion for the inevitably diverse and judicious selection has been the relationship each and every one of the selected had with what was known during the 1950s to the 1990s as the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Plastic Arts, called nowadays in short, UNArte. Therefore it is an exhibition that actually brings together both teachers and students, the latter of whom sometimes became teachers in their own right.
The six and a half decades of continuous activity brought to light by this exhibition can roughly be divided into two distinct chapters conjoint on the milestone of 1989. The first chapter was ideologically marked by the coordinates of the totalitarian communist regime; however, the University managed to provide students with a fair level of professional rigour and especially after the stage of socialist realism, with an actual broadening of artistic perspective. The main drives to contribute to the consistency in artistic value for many of the exponents in UNArte’s different generations of students (beside the innate qualities of the students) were the pedagogical and artistic qualities of several dedicated teachers. The art of the 60s and 80s (disregarding the official conformist art) stands to prove this.
The beginning of the 90s brought major changes of title and statute, structure, staff and curriculum; the former institute became an academy, a university in 1998 and finally national university in 2002. The newly appointed younger teachers who were also emerging or fully established artists on the local and international art stage consistently contributed to the acceleration of these transformations.
UNArte is committed today to an on-going process of integration into the European artistic higher education system through educational programs such as ERASMUS, aimed to grow cultural mobility and exchange of best practices for its students. UNA Gallery – the University’s own gallery and an open practice space for students also stands to prove the importance of the curatorial exercise and the experience of being exhibited in the strategy of the University.
It is indeed fair to say that the Romanian art scene is significantly represented and influenced by teachers and former students of UNArte, with no intention of suggesting that the present selection would be in any way a complete and absolute reflection of the entire Romanian contemporary art ensemble.
The exhibition packs an eclectic body of painting, sculpture, drawing, art object, installation, photography and video art spanning on more than one generation of artists whose works had been chosen for the representativeness of discourse in relation to the expression medium.
The selection was made possible with the combined effort of all the institutions involved, whose own collections were a valuable resource and starting point. Namely, in order of the number of works kindly made available: The National Museum of Contemporary Art, The National University of Arts, City of Bucharest Museum, private collections and artist collections.
Considering the title and mission of the exhibition, the selection displays iconic works of both well-established artists and artists who seem to have been almost forgotten, while also uncovering lesser known works or rarely exhibited ones such as diploma projects or works from student years.
The exhibition reveals major trends that used to define and still define our visual arts outside most of the monolithic body of the official communist art (only some interesting reverberations of it have been included). Different flavours of realism, neo-pop and new photorealism coexist with lyrical abstraction, neo-expressionism with stances of conceptual art and to some extend with post-Brancusi shape reductionism in sculpture. Some hints of surrealism blended together with staged photography are clearly traceable in painting and drawing while neo-orthodoxism walks side by side with the rectified readymade. Despite so many variations, a subtle feeling of belonging to a distinct cultural family is dominant at a higher level of perception.
This exhibition does not aim to claim for itself a title of absolute infallibility in terms of Romanian art history even if each and every work presented or perhaps all together as well contribute to this (hi)story. No doubt about it, different approaches to such long time scale and wide range of artist could and should of course apply outside this current curatorial intention.
Artists (RO): Nicolae Alexi, Gheorghe I. Anghel, Carmen Apetrei, George Apostu, Ion Atanasiu Delamare, Cezar Atodiresei , Corneliu Baba, Mihai Balko, Vioara Bara, Constantin Baraschi, Silviu Băiaş, Cătălin Bălescu, Ioana Bătrânu, Ion Bitzan, Constantin Blendea, Catul Bogdan, Bogdan Bordeianu, Irina Botea, Traian Brădean, Geta Brătescu, Mihai Buculei, Aurel Bulacu, Marcel Bunea, Boris Caragea, Ştefan Câlţia, Andrei Chintilă, Alexandru Chira, Francisc Chiuariu, Vlad Ciobanu, Mihai Cismaru, Florin Ciubotaru, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Nistor Coita, Dumitru Cojocaru, Nicolae Comănescu, Alexandra Croitoru, Reka Csapo Dup, Suzana Dan, Elena Boby Dumitrescu, Mircia Dumitrescu, Sorin Dumitrescu, Ion Dumitriu, Darie Dup, Dan Erceanu, Aniela Firon, Constantin Flondor, Dimitrie Găvrilean, Benedict Gănescu, Ion Alin Gheorghiu, Marin Gherasim, Vasile Gorduz, Dumitru Gorzo, Teodor Graur, Vasile Grigore, Ion Grigorescu, Octav Grigorescu, Eugen Gustea, Harry Guttman,Vlad Iacob, Adrian Ilfoveanu, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Gheorghe Iliescu-Călineşti, Nadia Ioan, Costin Ioanid, Ion Irimescu, Gheorghe Ivancenco, Peter Jacobi, Vasile Kazar, Aurora Király, Iosif Király, Nicolae Krassovski, Marius Leonte, Stela Lie, Petru Lucaci, Ethel LukátsBăiaş, Ovidiu Maitec, Henry Mavrodin, Mihai Mănescu, Cornel Medrea, Wanda Mihuleac,Florin Mitroi, Valeriu Mladin, Gili Mocanu, Cosmin Moldovan, Teodor Moraru, Mircea Muntenescu, Ion Lucian Murnu, Georgeta Năpăruş, Paul Neagu, Ion Nicodim,Florin Niculiu,Mihai Oroveanu, Ion Pacea, Christian Paraschiv, Horea Paştina, Alexandru Patatics, Cosmin Paulescu, Neculai Păduraru, Romelo Pervolovici, Constantin Piliuţă, Adrian Pîrvu, Eugen Popa, Constantin Popovici, Marilena Preda Sânc, Florica Prevenda, Peter Pusztai, Silvia Radu, Gheorghe Rasovszky, Cristian Răduţă, Alexandru Rădvan, Dodi Romanaţi, Mihai Rusen, Liviu Russu, Ion Sălişteanu, Mihai Sârbulescu, Elena Scutaru, Marcel Scutaru, Ştefan Sevastre, Doina Simionescu, Ovidiu Simionescu, Donald Simionoiu, Ana Maria Smigelschi, Mircea Spătaru, Dan Stanciu, Ion Stendl, Florin Stoiciu, Dorian Szasz, Ştefan Szönyi, Gheorghe Şaru, Vladimir Şetran, Constantin Şevţov, Napoleon Tiron, Mircea Tohătan, Vasile Tolan, Roman Tolici, Roxana Trestioreanu, Corneliu Vasilescu, Paul Vasilescu, Victor Velculescu, Simona Vilău, Aurel Vlad, Ecaterina Vrana, Sorin Vreme, Vladimir Zamfirescu, Gheorghe Zărnescu, Marian Zidaru.