A magnificent survey exhibition of Jewish avant-garde
artists from Romania will open at the Jewish Historical Museum
(JHM) on 1 June 2011: From Dada to Surrealism, with more than
seventy works of art from the period 1910-1938. Most of these works
have never been on display before in the Netherlands, or anywhere
outside Romania.
In the 1920s, artists such as Victor Brauner (1903-1966), Marcel
Janco (1895-1984), and Max Herman Maxy (1895-1971) astonished the
public with their fearless experimentalism. Surrealist, abstract,
and expressionistic works, picto-poetry, and personal variations on
Constructivism - nothing was too radical for them. Along with
fellow artists like Arthur Segal (1875-1944), they were present at
the birth of an influential avant-garde movement.
In 1924, Brauner, Janco, and Maxy introduced the Romanian public
to modern art from Europe for the first time. They came into the
public eye again later through their contributions to well-known
magazines like 75 HP, Punct, and Integral. The exhibition From Dada
to Surrealism presents the rise and development of a range of
Jewish artists from Romania, highlighting Segal's Neo-Impressionist
art, Brauner's Surrealist works, Janco's portraits, landscapes, and
genre scenes, and Maxy's growing interest in social themes.
Developments on the Romanian art scene in the early twentieth
century have received little serious study. Because of the deeply
ingrained anti-Semitism of the Eastern Bloc at the time and in the
decades that followed, art historians shied away from publishing
research on artists of Jewish origin. As a result, their work long
remained underappreciated in the West. The Jewish Historical Museum
is now offering the public an opportunity to discover the unique
achievements of these avant-garde artists. The exhibition From Dada
to Surrealism: Jewish Avant-Garde Artists from Romania, 1910-1938
underscores the long-neglected importance of Bucharest to the
European avant-garde and explores the relationship between Jewish
identity and radical modernity. The exhibition will run until 2
October 2011.
For information and/or images
, please contact:
Marketing and Communication Department
T +31 (0)20 5 310 370
E Communication Department