On the occasion of the “Timisoara European Capital” event, a retrospective of the work of artist Victor Brauner is being organised in his native country.
Victor Brauner, who settled permanently in France in 1938, is one of the greatest artists of surrealism. He is also an artist apart in the story of art with an original work, complex, erudite, full of humour and inventions, and nourished by his Romanian origins, the most secret esotericisms, German Romantics, body art and primitive arts.
Born in 1903 in Piatra Neamț (Moldova), Victor Brauner actively participated from the 1920s in the Bucharest avant-garde of which he became one of the main representatives. His conversion to Surrealism took place gradually between the first stay (1925-1926) and the second stay in Paris (1930-1935) of the artist, who joined the movement of André Breton in the autumn of 1933.
Following an accident in 1938, Brauner lost an eye and became, for the surrealists, the “visionary” painter, capable of premonition. This enucleation, the removal of the eyeball, had been depicted in a self portrait in 1931, seven years earlier.
Retrospective
This exhibition benefits from an exceptional loan from the Centre Pompidou (Paris) with about forty works, which should be completed by a dozen works from the museums of Marseille and Saint-Etienne, as well as about twenty works preserved in Romania in museums and private collections. This retrospective will thus be able to present the entire career of the artist, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and his creation
according to various media (painting, drawing, object, sculpture).
Even if some of Brauner’s artworks (especially of the beginning of his production) are present in museum and private collections in Romania, Brauner, recognized internationally (in France, Germany, Italy, the United States, …), is still too little known in his native country. That is why this retrospective – the first exhibition dedicated to this great artist in a museum in Romania, and curated by Camille Morando, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) – is a very significant cultural event.
Victor Brauner
Inventions and Magic
17th February – 28th May 2023
Timișoara National Art Museum, Romania
