Romanian Art Historiography in the Interwar Period. Between the Search for Scholarship and Commitment to a Cause

At the end of World War I, Romania emerged as a much stronger nation, with a greatly enlarged territory. During the two world wars, the Romanian state was permanently looking for the best way to preserve the newly created national state and defend its frontiers. This was the only matter all Romanian parties seemed to agree on. The threat of territorial revisionism coming from Hungary, the Soviet Union and, to a lesser extent, Bulgaria united all the political actors in defending the peace system of Versailles and supporting the League of Nations as the guarantor of this peace and stability. The interwar period was a remarkable time for Romania’s cultural history. Between the two world wars, the Romanian cultural scene was dominated by what Keith Hitchins calls the ‘Great Debate’ about national identity and development. The opponents were those advocating synchronism with the West, on the one hand, and those pleading for tradition, on the other, with many others looking for a third way. In Romanian interwar culture, the country’s modernity was emphasized in order to place the country within the larger family of European nations. An opposing, and at the same time, complementary line of thought was that of presenting the long and noble Romanian history, tradition and ancestral roots. These two themes have been present in Romanian culture since the mid-19th century. They were used by various authors, sometimes in a complementary fashion, while at others, in a conflicting manner in literature, historical writing or political discourse. This process did not end with the creation of the Greater Romania after the end of World War I. New threats, which are mentioned above, maintained the need to continue this discourse. In this context, historical arguments became political arguments and were used by the Romanians in order to justify the new territorial gains and the Versailles system. Art history, part of the family of historical disciplines, came to play an important part in this. Romanian art historical writing or political discourse. This process did not end with the creation of the Greater Romania after the end of World War I. New threats, which are mentioned above, maintained the need to continue this discourse. In this context, historical arguments became political arguments and were used by the Romanians in order to justify the new territorial gains and the Versailles system. Art history, part of the family of historical disciplines, came to play an important part in this. Romanian art historical writing did not exist as such until the end of the 19th century. It was only in the first years of the next century that the number of scholarly works produced following western standards steadily increased. As part of a general tendency of aligning Romanian academic practices with those in the West, art historiography established itself as a respectable academic discipline, a process which went hand in hand with the establishment of new institutions such as museums, university departments, research institutions and the Commission for historical monuments. All these institutions were founded and financed by the Romanian state, and most scholars were involved with these institutions in one way or another. Although Romanian art historiography of the period is dominated by the desire to produce academic works to the highest standards, the ideas of the Great Debate are present in the works of that time. At the same time, in several texts, the most prominent art historians of the day strongly affirm the necessity of putting their work in the service of the national cause. In this paper, we will be looking at the general histories of Romanian art written between the two world wars. The choice of these texts is motivated by the fact that these works are the result of larger research projects and have a broader scope and as such better summarise the trends of the interwar period.

Simboluri și sculptură. Porțile maramureșene vechi

The cult of globalization from these days could be easily resisted or even forgotten once you find the carved wooden portals on the lands of Maramureș. There, the cultural tradition of the picturesque villages from our country’s distant past remains immaculate and at the same time conveys freshness to the Romanian art history and sculpture. From the beauty and artistry of these ornate gates, one could get the impression that the carved symbols were created for esthetic purposes only, if their significance were unclear. Nevertheless, like the painted churches in Bukovina where one could view or decipher the Bible by looking at the paintings in a certain order, the portals in Maramureș accurately convey a visual record of local people’s beliefs and traditions throughout history. We know that these gates date back to pre-Christian times, but they are still being crafted by local craftsmen today. To what degree has Christianity influenced the evolution of the Maramureș portals’ symbolism?

Contemporary Romanian Art in the United States

The article discusses the recent international interest in contemporary Romanian art and its growth in market share, with a focus on the United States. The theme is followed thorough in numerous museum exhibitions, increased collector following, art fair presence, gallery representation and auction activity initially in Europe and the United States. The phenomenon is discussed both in the context of the larger international movement conducive to the contemporary art price bubble, and in that of the local socio-economic changes. My chief interest lies in the factors leading up to the entry of post 1989 Romanian art in the global arena as a manifestation of market forces in the field. The analysis follows its grass roots local emergence through non-profit institutions, individual artists, small publications, low budget galleries, as well as the lack of contribution (with few notable exceptions) of state institutions, while pointing out the national context of increasing deregulation of social support systems resulting in lack of focus on cultural manifestations. The conclusion is that the recent ascent of contemporary Romanian art (and coincidentally, the award winning contemporary Romanian cinematography) is a fortuitous convergence of various factors, among which, increased international mobility and sharing. At the same time, it is also the result of the evolution of various individual artists that pursued a form of art rooted in Romanian artistic tradition but with a focus on the symbolic figurative. The result is a personal semiotics of raising the mundane to extraordinary levels that reconfigured the anxiety of entering a new system into an unmistakable and lasting visual language.

Beyond the Sneer: Revisiting Musical Socialist Realism

The author engages with how communism and socialist realism have been re-presented in post-communist Europe. Communist cultural artefacts are displayed in museums and theme parks on a continuum from dangerous relics to benign kitsch. He argues for neutrality when dealing with musical socialist realism and demonstrates some of the pitfalls in taking that position through examples of Romanian art music from the mid-20th century.