Museum

Dec 06 2013
6

Brancusi in New York 1913-2013 Exhibition

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In 1913, Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi arrived in New York and showed five pieces for the first time at the Armory Show. Fast forward 100 years and the influential artist will be honored with a solo exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery

Trip to Romania team was there and the beauty of the five masterpieces- Head, Mademoiselle Pogany II, The Newborn, Sleeping Muse II, and Fish- made us proud and honored of such greatness.

Born in Romania, Constantin Brancusi first studied sculpture at the School of Arts and Crafts in Craiova (1894–98) and the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest (1898–1902). In 1904 he left Romania permanently, traveling through Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Zurich, and Basel before settling in Paris.

There, he continued his training at the École des Beaux-Arts (1905–07), and his work of the period attracted the attention of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. In Paris he was welcomed by a community of artists and intellectuals including Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, and Marcel Duchamp.

He made his debut in New York in 1913 at the Armory Show, where the sculptor exhibited five works that directed modern sculpture on a radical new path. His popularity in New York and the United States grew over the following years.

“Without the Americans, I would not have been able to produce all this or even to have existed“, said Constantin Brancusi to the New York Times in 1955 when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrated his work with the first museum retrospective of his work.

Brancusi’s second Guggenheim retrospective occurred in 1969, and was held in the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. MoMA included works by Brancusi in more than ten group exhibitions between 1934 and his death in 1957. It took until 1967 for a French museum to have a show dedicated to his work (Tribute to Brancusi, at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris), and until 1995 for the first full-scale exhibition in his adopted country at the Pompidou Center.

Upon his death, Brancusi bequeathed a collection of his work to the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris on the condition that his studio be rebuilt as it was when he died. The reconstructed studio is located near the Pompidou Center, and was built under the directorship of Pontus Hulten.

For more information, please visit http://www.paulkasmingallery.com

 

Nov 12 2013
1
  • Castelul Corvinilor

Corvin Castle – the magnificent castle and its stories

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When it comes to knowing a culture, their presence is everywhere: they served as strategic points, official residences and works of art.

Showing power, imposing respect, castles have played an important role in so many countries, including our Romania. Let us take for example the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara. A magnificent piece of gothic art with Renaissance elements, great fortress and, at the same time, a warm home for the noble families of Transylvania’s past.

This particular castle still attracts visitors with its magnificent towers, colored roofs, interior yard, drawbridge and plenty of chambers to delight the eye. Its most important owner was Iancu or Ioan de Hunedoara (John Hunyadi in English), a great Transylvanian military and political character in the 15th century.

Stories tell that it was the place where Vlad III of Wallachia (commonly known as Vlad the Impaler/Dracula) was held prisoner by Iancu for 7 years and later they came to an agreement and a political alliance. Another story talk about the castle yard that has a well 30 meters deep dug by twelve Turkish prisoners to whom liberty was promised if they reached water and after 15 years, when they completed the well, their captors did not keep their promise. And maybe the most famous legend about the castle has to do with the spirits reported to be haunting it, what made the British paranormal television program crew Most Haunted Live! spend 3 night in an investigation. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive.

The good is that the castle was also turned into a museum and invites you to a special world, sharing its valuable patrimony and telling its beautiful story like a beloved grandparent would, to posterity.

Visits:
Open: (May – August)
Tue. – Sun. 9:00 am – 6:00 pm; Mon. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 pm
(March – April)
Tue. – Sun. 9:00 am – 5:00 pm; Mon. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 pm
(September – February)
Tue. – Sun. 9:00 am – 4:00 pm; Mon. 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 pm
Admission charge

 

Oct 15 2013
4

Village Museum of Bucharest – an oasis of serenity, the heart of the city

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One of the main attractions of Bucharest is the Village Museum, a place that guarantees some moments of peace, calm and serenity, a short trip in time, more than 100 years back in history.

 

The museum was founded in 1936, it is an open air museum an and it occupies 4,5 hectares inside the Herastrau Park, the city`s biggest park.

Countryside life, traditions, the way a village house should be built and organized with all utilities: the kitchen, bedrooms and baking room, weave room, the hencoops, aviary, the barn, the horse carriage, the fountain and more related to the village life. The inside of the houses is decorated respecting an old traditional house: terries on the walls, fluffy pillows, wooden painted religious icons, ceramic vases, and the colors and vivid and welcoming. And to give the truth touch of the countryside, near the house you`ll find a barking dog, a lazy cat, some chicken and a cock and some ducks, sometimes. And of course, the front yard will grow beautiful flowers and the back yard had vegetables.

The museum was built by Dimitrie Gusti`s initiative, sociology teacher, in order to give the people of Bucharest, at the end of 19th century, a better knowledge of the countryside. Each one of the houses presented respect the traditional house plan of the region the are from: roof shape, construction type, rooms, basement or no basement, attic etc. The materials respect the original village the house represents, as well. They were brought by train and assembled in Bucharest by handymans from the same village, too.

A walk of 30-40 minutes through the Museum will take you from Maramures to Oltenia and from Transylvania to the Danube Delta or the seaside. Along with the houses, the churches are also represented, from different sides of the country, and the houses architecture changes as you cross the boarders.

The visit time is 9 to 5 on Monday, and from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 to 7. More information about the place, the exhibitions and the events of each month can be found by accessing www.muzeul-satului.ro