ArtSay

  Ion Grigorescu, b. 1945, artist American art picked a moment for itself when the soul of the Romanian artist was open towards the scene of the Greats, was bolstered by the Party's granting freedom of form, and had the "freedom" afforded by the lack of "stars" in socialist Romania.  I don't remember and can't see why I'd prefer precise data to fictional data; for example, in 1968, an exhibition of British painting left a strong impression on me so I got a 5 mark in school, I was in fifth grade, on the verge of failing, and loved pre-raphaelism. Only for a year. 1969 saw American art and the American president come to Romania. I can't remember the artists either, but I can still picture some of them: Warhol and his pop cans (and Jasper Jones's Ballantines ), Lichtenstein's raster, Rauschenberg and his photographs on canvas. My "monumental art" classmates found a technique that proliferated throughout the school: we put gas all ...

Interview with  Adrian Ghenie b. 1977, Romanian artist Berlin, May 1st 2023 Frank Stella , Black Paintings   Mihai Pop: What year did that story with Frank Stella take place? Adrian Ghenie: I went to his exhibition in London, he had a big show on at the Haunch of Venison gallery sometime in 2011 after I'd moved away from London and Haunch was still in the Royal Academy of Arts space; Ben Tufnell introduced me: "Come to the opening and come meet Frank Stella at dinner afterwards!". MP: And how did the meeting go? AG: I introduced myself, "Hello, good to meet you, you know, I first saw your work in a trash bin at School no. 5 in Baia Mare." He started laughing, "What?!". MP: What was the old man like? AG: Likable, like someone out of Seinfeld , like a taxi driver. He pulled up a chair next to me and said "Please tell me the story!". And I told him how I was leaving school one...

  Nicolae Maniu, b. 1944, artist I've read the questionnaire you sent me multiple times over very carefully. My painting and sculpture did not intersect the American artistic trends you are researching, as you can tell from the media resources on the internet. Thank you nevertheless for the attention you've shown me and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

  Ioana Vlasiu, b. 1943, art historian 1. What American art exhibitions did you see between 1965 and 1989? The American art exhibitions that took place in Bucharest  1969 - The Disappearance and Reappearance of the Image – American painting after 1945 , Dalles Hall.  1972 - The Form and Process of Creation in 20th Century American Painting , Dalles Hall. 1972 - New American Sculpture , the American Library. 2. Between 1965 and 1989, did you see American art in Romania or abroad? In Romania. 3. Which American artists and what American approaches/trends/styles interested you at the time? Abstract expressionism. Minimalism, which I discovered indirectly through Brâncuși's influence on some of its exponents. The interest in Brâncuși led to translations of some American authors' books about him being published – Sidney Geist, Athena Tacha, Spear.  In 1970, I interviewed Geist for Literary Romania , as a special guest of the Brâncuși exhibition at the National Art Museum ...

  Ioan Augustin Pop, b. 1955, artist 1. What American art exhibitions did you see between 1965 and 1989? - The Visual Artist at Work in America , Expo Transilvania, Cluj-Napoca, 1979. - THE MUSEUM - The American Museum/A Mirror of Community (with short presentations of American art, as well as comparisons with XIXth century and avant-garde art), Cluj Museum of Art, 1980. 2. Between 1965 and 1989, did you see American art in Romania or abroad? I never went abroad. At the Cluj Museum, I witnessed spectacular art, monumental and even overwhelming. 3. Which American artists and what American approaches/trends/styles interested you at the time? Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were my favorite artists for a long time, then Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns and, secondarily, Andy Warhol and pop art. Naturally, the New York School and/or American abstract expressionism held my interest for many years. 4. What position did American art and visual culture have in the artistic milieu you fr...

  Dorel Găină, b. 1953, artist 1. What American art exhibitions did you see between 1965 and 1989? I only visited two of them. In Oradea, where I lived, no such exhibition took place physically, and while I was a student in Cluj they hadn't gotten there either. In 1975 or 1976, I visited the American Photography exhibition in Sibiu. There was a large group of us, students in industrial esthetics and interior arts at the "Ion Andreescu" Visual and Decorative Arts Institute (now the Cluj-Napoca University of Art and Design). We were all passionate about photography as well, in general and about artistic photography specifically. The visit had a remarkable impact and an essential contribution to our development and our passionate practice of photography, especially artistic photography. Before '89 or just after, I can't quite remember, I went to visit the American Cinematography exhibition myself, with great focus, in Bucharest at the Dalles Hall/Gallery. It was an i...