Nr. 4 (21) anul VI / octombrie-decembrie 2008 - ROMDIDAC

EX PONTO NR.4, 2008
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under the Romanian exotic attire. Matisse’s fascination with Romanian
costumes was an aesthetic reaction in front of an artistic work. In a letter to
his life-time friend Theodor Pallady, he admitted that these artifacts had as
much value as the artworks in which they are depicted:
I found a beautiful Romanian blouse, of ancient design, with old ochre
stitches, that must have belonged to a princess and I’d like many more of
them, for which I’d willingly exchange a fine drawing. (187)
Matisse’s blouses became so popular in the US that during the 1940s a
Hungarian expatriate, De Hory/Raynal/von Houry/Herzog/Cassou/Hoffman/
Dory-Boutin, forged hundreds of Matisse’s drawings depicting women wearing
Romanian blouses. That is relevant both for the American market of artworks
and for the interest in the Romanian decorative patterns. The fact that these
fake drawings were distributed by dealers from New York and Chicago is also
significant for the Romanian settlements and the increased interest in their
identity as represented in high art.
Constantin Brâncu[i
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, two important exhibitions
made the news for several months in the East Coast, drawing the American
public’s attention to the artworks of a Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brâncu[i.
At the Armory Show, New York 1913, Brâncu[i exhibited five pieces which
attracted American collectors and some of the American art critics. Articles
in New York Times, The Sun, and New York Press were about Brâncu[i’s
art and his Romanian roots. Camera Work, Little Review, Vanity Fair, New
York Times, The New York Evening Post accompanied their articles about
Brâncu[i with photos of his Birds. The interest of the media in this topic was
so high that the editors of This Quarter considered Brâncu[i to be “the most
written-about artist in the world.” Ezra Pound, 8 Mina Loy, and Jeanne Foster
wrote about Brâncu[i’s Romanian heritage and its traces in his artworks,
mainly primitivism.
The most publicized event was, however, the celebrated trial, American
Customs versus Brâncu[i. On October 1927, the customs officer declared
Brâncu[i’s modernist bronze sculptures “Kitchen utensil and Hospital Supplies”
and charged him a $ 4,000 fee for his “raw” metal works, oblivious to their
artistic value. Besides the two parties, the US government and the avantgarde
sculptor, an impressive number of American and European artists as
well as art critics were involved as experts. The sculptor, Jacob Epstein;
the photographer, Edward Steichen; the editor of The Arts, Forbes Watson;
the editor of Vanity Fair, Frank Crowninshield; the director of the Brooklyn
Museum of Art, William Henry Fox; the art critic, Henry McBride, all testified
that Brâncu[i’s artifacts are undeniably artistic. Modernist artists like Marcel
Duchamp, Ezra Pound, and Henri-Pierre Roché took Brâncu[i’s side in their
articles and used the controversy over Brâncu[i’s sculptures to promote the
avant-garde aesthetics.
For almost one year, the art press focused on the twenty piece set, Birds
in Space. They all were more stylized versions of Pasãrea Maiastra, the
original dated 1910. Both Pasãrea Maiastra and the series Birds in Space
were inspired by a Romanian folk tale in which an irresistibly beautiful bird
sings so delightfully that the king falls in love with her and her songs. She is
unattainable for most of the mortals; only the youngest son of the king succeeds
in capturing her and brings her to his father. Another version of the fairy tale