Asked once he thinks about Ioan Andreescu (1850-1882), Nicolae Grigorescu replied: “Andreescu is the biggest artist he had, counting me even. If he had lived, he would have undoubtedly become our great national artist. ” (Radu Bogdan, Ion Andreescu, Meridiane Publishing House, 1961).
A Such a confession was in the mouth of Grigorescu – usually expensive to talk and severely in appreciation – a very special value, which time has confirmed.
From March 7, in the new season Art Safari you see who won this duel, symbolic of course. Ioan Andreescu is revealed to the publising in an exhibition-trospect that marks 175 years since the birth of the great artist.
Andreescu was indeed an exceptional painter and, unquestionably, the deepest of the Romanian landscapes. He extinguished his life at 32, before his restricted fame was to spread, before his creative power gave that rich fruit, capable of exerting an influence on the general public and contemporary painters, as happened. With Grigorescu, as Radu Bogdan wrote.
In 1873, the canvas of the same great Grigorescu, who would say these words a few decades later, impresses him deeply and decisively influences the destiny of the young drawing teacher from the Seminar in Buzau.
Inspired by Grigorescu, decides to make great art
He was born on February 15/27, 1850, in Bucharest, from a family of wealthy merchants, who would lose his wealth in the years when the future artist was studying secondary. Signing some talent and forced to help their parents and brothers, in 1869 Andreescu took advantage of the recent establishment, at the School of Fine Arts led by Theodor Aman, of a linear and calligraphy section, and follows the courses of the three years provided in program. After graduation, he manages to be very difficult to be called a teacher at the seminar chair in Buzau.
Started on the road with the modest thought of maintaining a career of drawing teacher in the province, the interior construction of Ioan Andreescu is resolutely reorganized, to respond to the artistic call. Visiting the exhibition of the Bellelor-Arti friendships, in January 1873, and noting the Gregory landscapes, infused with the modernity of the French school in Barbizon, Andreescu becomes aware of his talent and decides that he must do painting.
During the next ten years, its creation evolves impressive and reaches unexpected peaks that deeply mark the Romanian art, orienting for the first time the creative-artistic act to a scale of values that puts above the emotion and expressiveness than the surface and academic rigor. Starting with Andreescu, the Romanian art will build the most important artistic characters, based on the principle of the artist’s freedom to explore his own experiences, creating conditions for the appearance of peaks such as Stefan Luchian or Nicolae Tonitza.
An artist very different from admired master
Andreescu has learned a lot from Grigorescu: love of nature, simple people, the world of trim and peasants, contempt for formulas and conventions, the pleasure of painting outdoors. However, from the first moments, the young painter has proven to be an artist very different from the admired master. Andreescu was completely refractory to everything that was picturesque. In the face of nature, he did not stop at appearances, did not move the external beauties; Beyond that, it was clear and set analogies, exploring the depths.
Authentic, deep, melancholic, with a vision of the severe, realistic, but of amazing and emotional sensitivity, Ioan Andreescu remains, along with Grigorescu, one of the greatest Romanian artists, and his work retains, for better For a century, the ability to impress the contemporary viewer.
Only about 200 works are known!
“The exhibition from Art Safari, organized 175 years after the birth of the great artist, assumes the difficult mission to bring to the public a good part of the most important works signed by Ioan Andreescu, spread in museum and private collections. With a restricted well -known work, which adds a little over 200 paintings, Andreescu is as valuable, so rarely encountered, and the organization of a dedicated exhibition is for the public a special opportunity to know and deepen its remarkable creation. Authentic, deep, melancholic, with a vision of the severe, realistic, but of amazing and emotional sensitivity, Ioan Andreescu remains, along with Grigorescu, one of the greatest Romanian artists, and his work retains, for better For a century, the ability to impress the contemporary viewer ”, declares Maria Munteanu, the curator of the exhibition “Ioan Andreescu. The truth and the imagination. ”
Important cultural institutions in Romania join as partners to the exhibition and borrow painting and graphic works for articulating a more comprehensive vision on Ioan Andreescu: the National Museum of Art of Romania, the Library of the Romanian Academy, the Brukenthal National Museum, the Timișoara National Museum, the Museum of art Constanța, the Institute of Eco-Museum Research “Gavrilă Simion” Tulcea, the Arad Museum Complex, the Lipova City Museum, the Prahova County Museum “Ion Ionescu-Quintus”, the Bucovina Museum and the “Iulian Antonescu” Bacău Museum Complex.
“The event from Art Safari creates the exceptional opportunity to see together a significant number of works left from the great landscapeist and to look, thus, the artist’s work as a whole, from the shy onset period until the success achieved at the only exhibition Personal of Andreescu, in 1882, a few months before his disappearance, ”says Maria Munteanu.
The program of the new edition Art Safari
The exhibition will be seen from March 7 to July 77, during the Art Safari Keep the Art Beat, The largest exhibition event dedicated to art in Romania (but also in Eastern Europe).
The new season proposes an exceptional program: anniversary retrospective of the Romanian arts, Ioan Andreescu and Ion Țuculescu, forgotten painters – hidden treasures of Romanian art, Young Blood 4.0, dedicated to the new wave of contemporary artists, but also “against the current” – an exhibition – an exhibition of photography.
Art stories are played by the public through special experiences Art Safari: nocturnal and day guided tours, art workshops for adults and children, Sunday brunch.
In the 15 editions so far, Art Safari has registered about 1 million visitors.
