Images
Vanguard
Artists of the Historical Avant-Garde in the Museum’s Collection
Although the historical avant-garde is chronologically placed in the first decades of the 20th century, the crystallization of its characteristics, along with those that would lead to the creation of the concept of the historical avant-garde, began already during the 19th century. For this reason, some authors have considered that the beginnings of the historical avant-garde date back to the end of the 19th century. One such author was Antoine Compagnon, who argued that the first figures situated within the historical avant-garde were neo-impressionists such as Seurat and Signac, who shared leftist political views. Political affiliation played an important role in the formation of the artistic avant-garde as a result of transferring the spirit of radical critique of social and political forms into the realm of artistic forms. Therefore, the existence of two avant-gardes can be considered: a political avant-garde and an aesthetic avant-garde. While the first sought to change the world, the second aimed to change art, believing that the world would follow.
From the perspective of specialized criticism, avant-gardism designates some of the most unconventional manifestations of modern art, including the distorted yet still legible images of Cubism and continuing with the fully abstract expressions in the works of P. Mondrian, the ironic artistic expressions of M. Duchamp, or the challenging artistic images of D. Hirst. Anticipated by the experiments of the “color revolutions” (Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Naïve Art), the avant-garde established and defined—giving birth to the “form revolutions” (Futurism, Constructivism, Suprematism, Cubism)—some of the fundamental directions of 20th-century art. These directions shared a refusal to uncritically adopt European art traditions, demanding artists to distinguish themselves through original creations from everything that had preceded them. This “break” aimed to rediscover essential principles of art, arguments in favor of detachment from mimetic representation of concrete reality as it is.
Regarding the relationship between the Romanian avant-garde and the socio-political context of its development, it can be said that approximately between 1921 and 1924, avant-garde artists originating from Romania who had returned to the country showed a socio-political receptivity somewhat different from the native one. Especially painters such as M.H. Maxy and H.M. Teutsch or graphic artists like J. Perahim, A. Jiquidi, and H. Hermann demonstrated leftist political sympathies, with some becoming illegal members of the Communist Party by the late 1930s. In the socio-political confusion following the First World War, communist ideology seemed to many artists a natural continuation of pre-war humanist and socialist currents of thought. A possible explanation for this coexistence and mutual reshaping is the very fact that the Romanian avant-garde experienced an adaptation process to a particular historical context even before encountering the restrictions of the communist regime. Starting from 1922–1924, representatives of the Romanian avant-garde adapted their artistic formula to the specific local aestheticism, which strongly resonated with the realist-classical fusion practiced throughout Europe during that period.
The permanent exhibition of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum has, in its successive layouts since the 1970s, displayed key works of painting and sculpture from the Romanian historical avant-garde. These creations in the museum’s collection synthesize some of the significant orientations of the historical avant-garde. Below, we present some of the most representative avant-garde artists in the collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum.
Gallasz Nándor was one of the avant-garde personalities promoted by the avant-garde-oriented magazine Periszkop from Arad. One decisive moment in his artistic career was his three-year captivity in Russia during World War I. This episode took a favorable turn when, at the end of the hostilities, he enrolled at the Moscow Art University, where he studied for two years. In 1921 he returned to Timișoara, marking an increasingly pronounced constructivist orientation in his work. The works Maternity and Oriental Dancer (1927) synthesize the artist’s conception regarding avant-garde formal synthesis.
Max Herman Maxy is one of the defining figures of the Romanian avant-garde, not only through the stylistic innovation of his work but also through his intense activity promoting new artistic directions. During his studies in Berlin (1922–1923), he frequented the prestigious groups “Der Sturm” and “Novembergruppe.” After returning to Romania, he became one of the founders of the magazine Integral (1924), through which the program of integralism—the Romanian version of constructivism—was promoted. His work was marked by constructivism, in its integralist version, with some periods predominantly figurative, as seen in Unemployed on a Bench in Cișmigiu, Composition with Vases, Butterflies and Butterflies, and Ballerina, held in the museum’s collection.
Marcel Iancu is one of the prominent personalities of the European and Romanian historical avant-garde. He was among the protagonists of the Dadaist movement in Zurich. After returning to Romania, together with Ion Vinea, he launched the well-known avant-garde magazine Contimporanul. Stylistically, his creation began under the sign of Expressionism, then increasingly evolved toward the aesthetic principles of Constructivism. The Cluj-Napoca Art Museum holds portraits of writers Mateiu Ion Caragiale, George Gregorian, Victor Eftimiu, Ion Barbu, and Ion Foti, included in the volume titled Anthology of Today’s Poets.
Klein József stands out for his excellent mastery of various traditional artistic techniques as well as for his heightened receptivity to the spirit of the historical avant-garde. Thus, after settling in Baia Mare in 1920, he was recruited as the master of the so-called “young rebels” who sought to challenge the authority of tradition’s canons. Composition with Nudes, dated after 1932, in a period of creative maturity, is certainly one of the most important works in the collection, for its harmonious synthesis of classical tradition and historical avant-garde currents.
Hans Mattis-Teutsch, after studying at the Higher School of Decorative Arts in Budapest, enrolled at the Royal Academy in Munich (1902–1905) in the sculpture department. His paintings, graphics, and sculptures constitute an original “universe,” based on his own theoretical system presented in the volume Kunst Ideologie (Art Ideology). The artist’s work was developed in resonance with the avant-garde issues of the era. Between 1918 and 1921, he exhibited in Berlin alongside Klee, Archipenko, and Chagall. Regarding the conception of his visual images, affiliations can be established with important artists such as Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Werefkin, Hecker, Stern, or the group Der Blaue Reiter. One of his most representative works is The Blue Rider (1925), which, along with the series Soulful Flowers and other compositions, synthesizes his abstract artistic conception. Through his singular work, Hans Mattis-Teutsch made a significant contribution to the development of Romanian art.
Corneliu Michăilescu studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest (1908–1912) after previously studying law and philosophy. He continued his artistic training in Florence (1913–1915; 1919–1921) and held numerous exhibitions both in Italy and Bucharest. His adherence to avant-garde principles promoted by the magazines Contimporanul and Integral was marked by experimentalism. Michăilescu’s version of integralism adds the expressionist pathos to the severity characteristic of constructivist visual rhetoric. Especially after 1933, his energetic brushwork fluidly geometrizes form to transpose dreamlike phantasms into refined but still recognizable images for public perception. The work Composition belongs to this stage of creative maturity when the artist’s explorations abandoned youthful turmoil, revealing the confidence of a style capturing a profoundly original spiritual universe.
Miliţa Petraşcu is one of the artists whose work has significant origins in the aesthetics of the historical avant-garde. This is because, upon her return to the country in 1923, she had already assimilated avant-garde principles through her studies. In Germany, she studied with Jawlensky and Kandinsky; in Paris, she frequented Sonia and Robert Delaunay, as well as Matisse and Brâncuşi, in whose studio she worked between 1919 and 1923. In Bucharest, she participated in the first three exhibitions organized by the magazine Contimporanul and in most exhibitions organized by modernist groups. Her works were frequently reproduced in the magazines Contimporanul, Unu, and Punct. The portrait of the poet Ion Vinea, held in the collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, reveals the artist’s concern for the synthetic rendering of volumes.
The collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum includes works by some of the most renowned artists of the historical avant-garde, recognized both nationally and internationally.
