Oscar Han

Oscar Han (1891, Bucharest - 1976, Bucharest) was a Romanian sculptor and writer. A student of Dimitrie Paciurea at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, he was a member of the Group of Four together with painters Nicolae Tonitza, Francisc Şirato and Ştefan Dimitrescu. His works were exhibited mainly in Bucharest, but also at Romanian art exhibitions and international exhibitions in other European cities, such as Venice, Anvers, Paris, the Hague, Amsterdam, Barcelona. He wrote a monograph on Paciurea and a large number of chronicles and articles (collected in 1970 in the volume Chisels and Brushes). In carving portraits of personalities, the sculptor was deeply concerned with revealing the physical and moral features of his characters. When realizing monumental works of art his main interest went at once to the gesture rhetoric and the volumes grandeur and to the demanding palpability of the modeled figures. He was Honored Master of Arts.

First Kiss

The Archer

Michael the Brave

Male nude

Male nude

Sabin Bălaşa

Sabin Bălaşa (June 17, 1932, Dobriceni - April 1, 2008, Bucharest) was a contemporary Romanian painter. His works are described by himself as belonging to cosmic Romanticism. He was also an author, writer and director of animated painting films.

In 1956 he graduated the Art Academy in Bucharest and he followed the courses of Art Academies from Siena and Perugia – Italy. He naturally started from the traditions of the Romanian art, which he assimilated in a creative way, and studied with interest and fervor the history and mythology of the Romanian people, pledging himself to conjure up a fascinating universe of great expressive power, conveying to the onlooker an impression or a rare strength.

Universe of love

Among Bălaşa's most notable works are several large-scale fresco paintings, which decorate the inside of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi. The Hall of the Lost Footfalls was painted over a period of 10 years and consists in 18 great wall paintings. Main themes include youth, the history and poetry of the Romanian people.

The Ball of Phantoms

Whether he painted such heroes of the national pantheon as Decebalus, Stephen the Great, Bălcescu or Eminescu, evoked characters of legend, epic or ballad or creates images living beyond time and space, Sabin Bălaşa constantly remains faithful to the most generous and noble human ideals.

Traveler in Time

He had many personal exhibitions in Warsaw (1955), Moscow (1958), Cairo, Alexandria, Damasc (1960-1961), Youth Biennial in Paris (1961), Pescara – Italy (1965), Roma (1966), Orly (1968), Torino, Roma (1969), Tel-Aviv, Yugoslavia, Bulgary, Japan (1970-1972), Conges sur Mer – France (1973), Cuba (1974), Greece, Russia, Finland (1976), Norway, Sweden, USA (1978) and many others. Some of his works are exhibited in many museums and are part of private collections all over the world.

Vision

Between 1966 and 1976 he created and directed 12 animated painting films. He was a member of the Jury at the international festivals of the animation films - Annecy (France - 1973). He has written novels such "The Blue Desert" (1996), "Exodus Toward The Light" (2002).

The Cavalcade

Wedding Traveling in Space

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Ion Creangă Memorial House

Ion Creangă (March 1, 1837 or June 10, 1839 – December 31, 1889) was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes. A defrocked Romanian Orthodox priest with an unconventional lifestyle, Creangă made an early impact as an innovative educator and textbook author, while pursuing a short career in nationalist politics.

Ion Creangă was posthumously granted several honors, and is commemorated by a number of institutions in both Romania and neighboring Moldova. These include the Bojdeuca (tiny hut) building in Iaşi, which, in April 15, 1918, was opened as the first memorial house in Romania. Restored the same year and again in 1933-1934, it houses an important part of Creangă's personal items and the first known among Creangă's portraits, painted by his contemporary V. Muşneţanu.

"Bojdeuca" in Iaşi

Another memorial house dedicated to Ion Creangă is located in Humuleşti, a former village which has since been incorporated into Târgu-Neamţ city, Neamţ County, Moldavia, Romania. The house was built in 1830 by Petrea Ciubotariul, the grandfather of the writer and it was inhabited by the descendants of Ion Creangă until 1959. In 1937 the house was restored by the care of great historian Nicolae Iorga.

The Memorial House in Humuleşti, painting by Aurel Băeşu

In 1944, Sofia Grigoriu (born Creangă) donate the house to the Association of Romanian Teachers. The house became a museum by a decree of 1959, but the memorial house was opened to the public in 1960. The building was donated to the state by his successors in 1965. During the following decades, it reportedly became the most visited memorial house in Romania.

The Ion Creangă Memorial House (Outside)

The museum represents, beyond its historical, literary, and sentimental significance, a specific item of folk architecture of the period and ethno-cultural area. Under the broad shingle roof, the walls built in heavy beams covered with a clay layer, establishes a single room with narrow windows and a lobby where you could just spin. The low entry is sheltered from rain by a narrow porch, and behind the house a wooden roof with one slope protect some household items and agricultural tools with a certain ethnographic value.

The Ion Creangă Memorial House (Inside)

Exhibits presented are characterized by simplicity, common sense and modesty specific to the Moldavian peasant, generating a strong sense of piety, not only for what they represent to the memory of Ion Creangă, but because they are genuine testimonials of people and popular tradition of region.

The Ion Creangă Theme-park in Humuleşti (Târgu-Neamţ)

Ion Creangă Memorial House on Google Maps

Panoramas by Michael Pop, from 360cities.net.

Geta Brătescu

Geta Brătescu (b. 1926, Ploieşti) - is a visual artist from Romania, leading figure of contemporary arts. His work includes graphic art, drawing, collage, photography, video and book illustration.

Geta Brătescu studied at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest between 1945-1949, with George Călinescu and Tudor Vianu, and at the Institute of Arts "Nicolae Grigorescu" Bucharest between 1969-1971. She started art studies in 1945 at the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of master Camil Ressu, but she was forced to discontinue because of communist censorship.

Distinct presence in the Romanian contemporary art, complete artist who chooses as a means of expression such as traditional media and new, Geta Brătescu done graphics work, engraving, drawing and fabric collage, tapestry, object, action photography, video. She exposed his works in collective or personal exhibitions in famous art galleries around the world (in Bucharest, Rome, Hamburg, Vienna, Liverpool, Missouri, Lausanne, Belgrade, Sao Paolo, Fredrikstad, Dessau, Bonn, Ljubljana, Graz). Geta Brătescu received many national and international awards, and in 2008 she received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National University of Arts in Bucharest, given for outstanding contribution to the development of contemporary Romanian art. Also, Geta Brătescu is artistic director of literature and art magazine "20/21 Century".

Geta Brătescu is caught in a contradictory move, developing artificiality and at the same time acknowledging its inevitability. Revealing for that are the objects with her face like a mask, increasing or decreasing the presence of artifice. High examples of his image features are combined with materials of everyday life, building composite objects that are assembled in collages often with humor, seeking the participation of the viewer. She goes from serious to humorous, off-hand the serious fantasy and whimsy, the conceptual rigor to the unstoppable inventiveness.

Geta Brătescu is regarded as one of the most remarkable personalities of Romanian post-war avantgarde art. With a background in literature and philosophy studies, pursued in parallel with those in art, Geta Brătescu’s artistic practice began in the heterogeneous and provocative intellectual environment of the 1940s and 1950s and has passed through the political upheaval of Socialism in Romania and its successive collapse at the end of the year 1989. The fact that the artist has experienced these social and cultural turns is an essential factor in understanding her recurrent appeal to particular forms of artistic expression.

Photos from Ivan Gallery

Emil Loteanu

Emil Loteanu (November 6, 1936 – April 18, 2003) was a renowned film director, film writer and writer (poetry and short stories) from Moldova.

Loteanu was born in Clocuşna, Hotin County, Kingdom of Romania (now Ocniţa district, Moldova Republic). After the annexation of Bessarabia by the USSR in 1944, Emil remained in Rădăuţi, together with his father. He studied at St. Sava College in Bucharest and after the death of his father in 1949 he illegally went in Moldova, but he was caught and handed over to Romanian border guards, who sent him to Bucharest, where his mother worked at the Soviet Embassy. In 1952 he asked to be repatriated and lived his early life on the streets, sleeping in warehouses and hostels. Between 1953-1954 was an actor at the Drama Theater "Pushkin" from Chişinău. He attended acting classes at the School of the Theater Academy of Art (MHAT) in Moscow (1954-1956) and directing at the Union Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in in Moscow (1956-1962). After graduating, Loteanu was hired in 1962 to Moldova-Film studio, working in the period 1973 to 1983 as director at the Mosfilm Studio in Moscow. In 1968 he joined the CPSU.

He made his directorial debut with Bolshaya gora in 1960, then his debut as a writer of feature films was in 1963, with Aşteptaţi-ne în zori (Expect us at dawn, 1963) at the Moldova Film Studio, and continued to make films there until 1975, when he joined Mosfilm. With films such as Lăutarii (English: The Fiddlers, 1971), Şatra (Russian: Tabor ukhodit v nebo English: Queen of the Gypsies, 1975), Gingaşa şi tandra mea fiară (Russian: Moy laskovyy i nezhnyy zver, English: A Hunting Accident, 1977), and Anna Pavlova (1983) Loteanu began to attract international attention. For his films, he received prizes at film festivals in San Sebastian, Naples, Milan, Belgrade, Minsk, Prague, Paris.

Between 1987-1992 Loteanu was president of the 'Filmmakers Union of Moldova'. He was instrumental in the formation of two promotions for film directors in the 'Upper School of Directing'. He founded the 'Phoenix-M Association of Experimental Creation', the theater and film magazine 'Magic Lantern', and was author of the television show 'Searching for a Star'. Emil Loteanu taught at the 'Art Institute of Chişinău'; among the young actors trained by Emil Loteanu were Svetlana Toma, Grigore Grigoriu, and many other.

He received the titles of 'Honored Master of Art in Moldova' (1969), 'People's Artist of Russian Federation' (1980), 'Honorary member of the International Academy of Film Nike'. He also received the 'State Prize' and the 'Order of the Republic'. In 2001, received the 'Award for Excellence in Art Directing', awarded at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest.

Paul Goma

Paul Goma (born October 2, 1935) is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he currently resides in France as a stateless political refugee. After 2000, Goma has raised much controversy for the opinions he expressed on World War II and the Holocaust in Romania, claims which have led to widespread criticism on grounds of antisemitism.


Goma was born to a Romanian family in Mana village, Orhei County, which at that time was a part of the Kingdom of Romania, nowadays part of Republic of Moldova. His parents were school teachers. After the 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, Paul Goma's father was taken away by the Soviet authorities and deported to Siberia. In October 1943, he was found by his family, as a prisoner of war, in "Camp No. 1 for Soviet Prisoners", in Slobozia, Ialomiţa County, Romania. In March 1944, the Goma family took refuge in Sibiu, Transylvania. In August 1944, finding themselves in danger of involuntary "repatriation" to the Soviet Union, they fled to the village of Buia, by the Târnava Mare River. From October to December 1944, the Goma family hid in the forests around Buia. On January 13, 1945 they were captured by Romanian shepherds and turned over to the Gendarmerie in Sighişoara, where they were interned at the "Centrul de Repatriere" ("Repatriation Center"). There, Eufimie Goma managed to forge documents for his family; however, Maria Goma's brother, who didn't have forged papers, was promptly "repatriated" to Siberia. In June 1945, taking advantage of the forged documents, they returned to Buia. Later on, Paul Goma would describe his family's refugee saga in the novels Arta refugii ("The Art of Refuge", a wordplay on the Romanian words for "refuge" and "taking flight"), Soldatul câinelui (Dog's Soldier), and Gardă inversă (Reverse Guard).

In May 1952, Goma, while a student in 10th grade, was detained for eight days by the Securitate for speaking out in the classroom about Romanian anti-communist partisans and for keeping a coded personal journal. In September-October of the same year he was barred from all the schools in Romania. After some unsuccessful attempts at re-admission he was finally allowed to attend Negru Vodă high school in Făgăraş. In 1954 he was admitted to the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest. In November 1956, he was one of the organizers of the Bucharest student movement, in support of the Hungarian Revolution. As a result, he was arrested by the Communist authorities, incarcerated for two years in Jilava and Gherla prisons, and then put under house arrest in a village in the Bărăgan Plain until 1963. In September 1965, he was re-admitted as a first-year student at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest. In the fall of 1967, under pressure from the Securitate, he was forced to give up his studies at the University.

At the end of August 1968, Paul Goma became a member of the Romanian Communist Party, in an act of solidarity with the Romanian position during the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania did not take part, indeed condemning the invasion). In 1971 it was proposed that Paul Goma be excluded from the Communist Party because he published his novel "Ostinato" in West Germany after the Communist censors refused to allow him to publish the book in Romania. Paul Goma refused to give up his Party membership by his own will. In 1977, Paul Goma's public letter calling for respect for human rights in Romania and for Romanians to sign Charter 77 was read on Radio Free Europe. As a result, he was excluded from the Writers' Union of Romania and was repeatedly followed, arrested, and tortured by the Securitate. On November 20, 1977, Paul Goma and his family left Romania and went into exile in France.


In 1979, Paul Goma was active in the creation of the Free Workers' Syndicate. On 3 February 1981, Paul Goma and Nicolae Penescu (former Interior Minister) received parcels in their post. Penescu opened his parcel to find a book and when he lifted its cover an explosion wounded him. Goma, who had received two death threats since his arrival in France, called the police. Both packages had been sent on instructions by Carlos the Jackal. In 1982, the Securitate planned to assassinate Goma. Matei Haiducu, the secret agent sent by the Securitate to carry out the plan, turned to French counter-intelligence (DST). With the help of the DST, Haiducu simulated an attempt on Goma's life, by poisoning his drink at a restaurant; the drink was then spilled by a French agent, pretending to be a "clumsy guest".

Although Goma's numerous works (both fiction and non-fiction) were translated worldwide, his books, except the first one, were published in Romania only after the 1989 Revolution. He now lives in Paris as a stateless political refugee, his Romanian citizenship having been revoked after 1978 by the communist government. He turned down an offer of citizenship from the French Republic, extended simultaneously to him and to the Czech writer Milan Kundera. In September 2006, a petition in favor of restoring his Romanian citizenship did not result in any progress on the issue.

Goma's literary debut came in 1966 with a short story published in the review Luceafǎrul with which he collaborated as well as with Gazeta literarǎ, Viaţa românească and Ateneu. In 1968 he published his first volume of stories, Camera de alături (The Room Next Door). After Ostinato and its West German publication in 1971 came Uşa ("Die Tür" or "The Door") in 1972, also in Germany. After his forced emigration in 1977 and until his books could again be published in Romania after the 1989 revolution, all his books appeared in France and in French. (His novel Gherla had in fact been published in 1976 first in French by Gallimard of Paris before he left Romania.) There followed such novels as Dans le cercle (Within the Circle, 1977); Garde inverse (Reverse Guard, 1979); Le Tremblement des Hommes (The Trembling of People, 1979); Chassée-croisé (Intersection, 1983); Les Chiens de la mort (The Dogs of Death, 1981), which details his prison experiences in Piteşti in the 1950s; and Bonifacia (1986). The autobiographical Le Calidor appeared in French in 1987 and was subsequently published in Romanian as Din Calidor: O copilărie basarabeană (In Calidor: A Bessarabian Childhood, 1989, 1990; translated as My Childhood at the Gate of Unrest) in the Romanian émigré journal Dialog.

In its totality, Goma's literary work comprises a "persuasive and grimly fascinating exposure of totalitarian inhumanity" from which, in his own case, even foreign exile was no guarantee of safe haven. (From Wikipedia)