I came back from Florence where I surpassed the tourist mood in three days, just to find myself with quite some time on my hands as I am jobless for two weeks.
The reminder that the first Wednesday of the month means free entry to some museums in Bucharest offered a good opportunity to fill the day with some well deserved inspiration, not that I didn’t get enough from Italy, it’s just that a little bit more is always welcomed.
I started by going to Zambaccian Museum, which I haven’t visited in almost ten years. I go more frequently to Paris then somewhere in my home town. I do remember the museum quite well as it is the place where I fell in love with Pallady’s women.
… Or was it at MNAR (National Museum of Art of Romania). There I go more often… Every other year or so and usually just for the temporary collections. You kinda need a day to see the museum entirely. It is exhausting even if you just blindly walk through it and since I like to stop and admire even if I saw a work of art before, it takes some time and energy I usually do not have. I need to be in such a visiting, curious and adventurous mood to have the availability to do this. Fortunately, I don’t need to be away for it to kick in, it’s just that home, wherever this is, one HAS TO do certain things, like cleaning, that take away the mood.
Anyway, the museum is gorgeous. This time, I had the pleasure to discover that since last time I visited, when I remember dismissing anything by Tonitza and squinting at Baba’s paintings, which I adore now, I actually liked Tonitza’s paintings too.
I like to see how I’ve grown in time. It’s a wonderful feeling even if it takes ten years. Somehow that is better than growing in three months, it can be quite unsettling even if it is for the better.
I have always had a love-hate relationship with Grigorescu’s paintings, even when impressionists were my faves. I grew out of my impressionist phase a while back. Now I am quite “unimpressionist”. 😋 However there are some paintings from Grigorescu I will always like for the mystery that they evoke.
Growing out of liking the impressionists happened sometime when I was no longer into landscapes. Probably seen too many. Also, I never really liked static nature (“nature morte” is more revealing as to why it does not appeal to me). It’s just a show-off of skill that doesn’t speak to me emotionally, so it does not stay in my memory. I can appreciate it though.
I also got to a point where I prefer a painting from Picasso rather than one from Sisley, which is odd as I still do not like Picasso. 😆
My next stop was Theodor Pallady’s Museum which I’ve never visited before. 😬 You might think it’s odd since I LOVE his paintings of women, but one can see those in many places and as expected there are only a couple in his museum. As it is his memorial house, it hosts all his art collection, which is of course made of art from others. It is a gorgeous house. That is nothing new as I passed by it more than once.
The final stop for the day was the Art Collections Museum. I wanted to go to MNAR as well just to see the Corneliu Baba exhibition, but I had to leave it for the next day as the Museum of Art Collections is much bigger than I remembered. Also, haven’t visited this one since I was a student, except to see temporary exhibitions.
I like Ciucurencu’s women as well. Although, unlike Pallady, I like Ciucurencu’s other paintings too, probably for the same reason I like Petrașcu’s paintings – the dark accents.
I discovered Nicolae Vermont about two years ago and I am mesmarised everytime by his paintings. Since I knew at this point I couldn’t see another museum that day, I took some time to actually look at the paintings. It was good. I like to get lost for a little while in a world that isn’t my own.
I found this collection of Shizuko Onda’s works which is so unexpected and even more so amazing. Loved it. I wonder how it ended up in such a place. I don’t mind much. It is a breath of fresh air when walking through this museum. It’s like a high note in the middle of a slow movement. It wakes one up. 😄
Gorgeous decorative art and a reminder of my new found love from Spain: the arm bracelet.
Pallady’s gorgeous women.
During the visit around this museum, it hit me that disturbing fact that women are not really present among these collections even if we had talented women painters and sculptors at the time of Pallady & Co.
Except for the collection of Micaela Eleuteriade’s paintings (see the one above is with doves🙄 #obssesedmuch) there were one or two lost sculptures and paintings made by women, in some collections. For example, even if Zambaccian had a sculpture from Frederick Storck, he didn’t have a painting from Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck and he clearly knew them both and she is worth having in a collection – might be a bit sensitive about this as she is one of my favorites… ☺️
Anyway, the Art Collections Museum is definitely worth another visit soon… er than ten years from now. 😅
On Wednesday, there are the concerts of classical music I got the habit of going to for four years now. I didn’t go this time because I had to fill in almost two hours and although if I would have been in a different city, I would have spend the time over a beer writing this blog, I didn’t feel like doing that then, so I went home. There is a limit to my “tourist mood” when I am not actually a tourist. 😋
The next day, I went to MNAR only to see the exhibition on Corneliu Baba. It was a nice opportunity to reflect on some things like how if I had a job I wouldn’t have made time for this even if I really wanted to see it. I have the proof of it from last year when there was another exhibition on Corneliu Baba and I somehow forgot about it.
The exhibition was centered around Baba’s workshop diaries. I had one of my own as recently as last year and will probably have another for the new project even if I tend to write on random papers. I am still old school. I do my best thinking on paper. This is funny considering I “harassed” someone this summer for being exactly the same way. 😅 Omg! How I turn into something I am not when I go to work! 😆
The day after, I already had tickets for a concert of classical music ( Chopin, my childhood love and Dvorak, my “maturity” love) and it was a perfect end of a first week back home, especially since I did nothing with that day because of all the job interviews.
The piano player, Beats Bilinska, was absolutely brilliant. ❤️
I do hope to go to Prague as it is Dvorak’s town. 💖 Or I could just stay here… They play him often enough. 😄
I also love not working too, though I must get started with the new project, not that I drew enough hearts to really feel it…
The joy of creating 