Art Safari returns this spring with an edition marking a decade of existence. In the foreground, the great masters of Romanian art: Eustațiu Stoenescu, Grigorescu, Tonitza, Luchian, Pallady, Baba, Petrașcu, Mützner, Dărăscu, Ressu, Iser.
The new season featured five art exhibitions, which can be seen between March 8 and July 28 at the Dacia-Romania Palace on Lipscani.
“The Secret Museum”, curator: Lelia Rus Pîrvan, exhibition made in partnership with the Constanța Art Museum, with the support of the Constanța County Council and Topalu City Hall
The commune of Topalu, Constanța county, has preserved a unique treasure in Europe since 1960: the “Dinu and Sevasta Vintilă” Museum, which houses one of the most important collections of interwar Romanian art, including masterpieces by Nicolae Grigorescu, Nicolae Tonitza, Ștefan Luchian, Theodor Pallady, Corneliu Baba, Gheorghe Petrașcu, Samuel Mützner, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Nicolae Darăscu, Camil Ressu, Iosif Iser and Constantin Piliuță.
The Topalu Art Museum is set up in the parental home of the late collector doctor Gheorghe Dinu Vintilă (1898-1978), close to the great Romanian artists, which he donated, together with all the works collected throughout his life, in the memory of his parents and his native commune, in 1960. The “Dinu and Sevasta Vintilă” collection consists of 228 works.
The “Dinu and Sevasta Vintilă” Museum in Topalu is the only art institution in the countryside of Europe – a slice of the country’s history rendered through an art collection of great sophistication. Art Safari’s ‘Secret Museum’ is the first-ever external exhibition of Topalu’s impressive collection.
“Eustațiu Stoenescu. The Portraitist of the Aristocracy”, curator: Angelia Iacob, scenographer: Cosmin Florea; the exhibition was made with the support of the Embassy of the United States of America in Romania and in partnership with the Bucharest City Museum and the National Art Museum of Romania
Eustațiu Stoenescu (1884, Craiova –1957, New York) was an artist with a remarkable international career and a vast body of work, insufficiently known after the communist period, whose authorities erased him from the art history books. In his time, he was considered among the most refined portraitists in Europe, but he also painted, in local tradition, landscapes or still lifes, all impressive for their plastic value.
The Romanian master was rewarded with numerous prizes and distinctions, and many of his works ended up in significant international collections in France, Italy, the USA, Great Britain, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. He created portraits that represented King Ferdinand, King Charles II, King Michael I, Queen Elena and many other crowned heads of Europe, but also many different personalities and the interwar period, from aristocrats to people of the world to athletes and governors.
He participated in three editions of the Venice Biennale, including the one in 1938, when the Romanian Pavilion was inaugurated in the Giardini della Biennale. The exhibition at Art Safari reveals the complex personality of this valuable artist, who has enjoyed success both at home and abroad, especially in Paris and New York.
“History of Romania in 100 portraits”, curator: Cornel Ilie, exhibition made in partnership with the National History Museum of Romania, with a design by Diana Nicolaie
Kings, queens, rulers, politicians, athletes, people of culture and science, and other notable personalities, are brought together in an anniversary exhibition. The portrait has always been a witness of history. Over time, celebrities and personalities have been immortalized for posterity, from providential people such as Nicolae Bălcescu and Tudor Vladimirescu to notorious athletes, such as Gheorghe Hagi and Nadia Comăneci. The portraits in this exhibition mostly come from museum collections, from that of the National History Museum of Romania to that of the National Military Museum, and are mainly exhibited for the first time.
“Workshops from Pangratti”, curator: Simona Vilău
The picture of a cultural elite, Ermil Pangratti Street has concentrated Romania’s most valuable artistic talent for 50 years. Both an investment of the system and a gallery of merits, the workshops in Pangratti Street represented the creative place of important contemporary artists, marked in the public consciousness but also embraced by the system and the management of the Union of Plastic Artists from Romania. These spaces had multiple functions: creative oases, a school for neophytes, a bohemian center, a “saleroom” for collectors, thanks of the system to official artists, and reward for artistic recognition.
Among the great artists who created here are Corneliu Baba, Ion Nicodim, Ovidiu Maitec, Paul Vasilescu, Gheorghe Iliescu-Călinești, Vasile Gorduz, Alin Gheorghiu, Sultana Maitec, Georgeta Năpăruș, etc.
Having as its nucleus the discrete collection of Ruxandra Garofeanu, historian and art critic, one of the important figures of cultural life in Romania for the last 50 years, the creation of important personalities of Romanian postmodern art, who worked in the workshops of the Union of Plastic Artists, from Ermil Pangratti street, is exhibited and partly restores a historical and visually important route, in a style assumed, adapted and constructed kaleidoscopically, specific to Ruxandra Garofeanu, their former great friend and supporter.
“Palace Gardens” – the first temporary exhibition of the season Secrets and Treasures, March 8 – April 14
The flowers of Romanian art, in the vision of the great masters Luchian, Grigorescu, Tonitza, Aman, as well as Queen Maria. The most beautiful and valuable flowers will be re-planted for exhibition, temporarily, in the gardens of the Palace of Dacia-Romania on Lipscani: roses and daisies, chrysanthemums, anemones, poppies and other wildflowers, captured in static natures, in bouquets, in parks. And in the gardens.
Children’s workshops and special tours
The children are waiting for the creative workshops and personalized guided tours as part of Art Safari Kinder.
The new edition debuts with three special events, including guided tours, live music and champagne bubbles, dedicated to students (Students Art Night Out), seniors (Seniors Meeting at Art Safari) and Ladies Night Art Out, a special event on March 8. Tickets for the three events are available here: https://www.artsafari.ro/project/night-tours/.
Art Safari Program (March 8-July 28, 2024)
Thursday-Sunday – 12:00-21:00 (last entry – 20:30)
Tickets: artsafari.ro or directly from the entrance
Palatul Dacia-Romania, street Lipscani, no. 18-20, Bucharest
