The Romanian Art Museum is hosting, until the
\nend of April, a new exhibition: M.H. Maxy – From avant-garde to
\nsocialism. Max Hermann Maxy (1895-1971) was a Romanian artist of Jewish
\norigin, a painter, stage designer, and university professor at the Institute of
\nFine Arts. Maxy was one of the most important figures of the avant-garde in
\nRomania, the founder of the avant-garde magazine Integral, director
\nof the Romanian Art Museum.<\/p>\n
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A complex and powerful personality, but also controversial
\nand criticized, an artist who created in two distinct times: monarchical
\nRomania (until 1947) and Romania of the new communist regime (in the second
\npart of his life). The exhibition presents the artist’s work following the
\nchronological line of his biography, through paintings, graphics, stage design,
\nprojects, art objects and magazines. We talked bout the exhibition and about
\nMaxy with the general manager of the Romanian Art Museum, C\u0103lin Stegerean, who is also the curator of the exhibition.<\/p>\n
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He was an exceptional figure of Romanian
\nart in the 20th century, primarily as a leader, the leader of the avant-garde
\nmovement in the interwar period, the creator of an important avant-garde
\nmagazine, Integral, and of a decorative arts workshop around this
\nmagazine. He was also a very talented stage designer, and worked with various
\navant-garde theater troupes. After the establishment of the communist regime,
\nhe held leading positions in the state apparatus, for example, he was president
\nof the Plastic Fund, and in 1950 he became the director of the first national
\nart museum of Romania, called the Art Museum of the Romanian People’s
\nRepublic. He supported the avant-garde movement, which he learnt about
\nprimarily in Germany, where he studied and later became one of the organizers
\nof the great avant-garde art exhibitions in interwar Romania and a contributor
\nto all the avant-garde magazines of this period, as platforms where the visual
\narts met with creation, with philosophy, with everything that meant the renewal
\nof the artistic language. He was very close to Marcel Iancu. Also, he was very
\nclose to Tristan Tzara, for example, to Ilarie Voronca, Ion C\u0103lug\u0103ru, with whom
\nthey collaborated on the magazine Integral, actually everything
\nthat was the Romanian avant-garde. Basically, everything was in a very close
\nconnection to everything, because the values \u200b\u200band the elites recognized each
\nother and sought each other’s company. He became a member of the Communist
\nParty as early as 1942. It was a very troubled period, when the Jewish
\npopulation was persecuted, with actions that actually led, or aimed to lead to
\nthe disappearance of the Jewish as an ethnic group. But the vanguard, in
\ngeneral, brought together people with left-wing convictions. But the transition
\nto the recipe of socialist realism was done in a somewhat different way than
\nwith other artists. He focused on the underprivileged in Romania. The 30-40s
\nare proof of this interest in workers, miners, those classes that were not
\namong the most favored. The exhibition itself, from a conceptual point of view,
\ntakes into account the fact that he was active in two distinct but almost equal
\nperiods: the monarchic period and the communist period, in which he was a
\nleading figure each time.In the
\nfirst part, obviously, he was the promoter of a renewal of the artistic
\nlanguage that our culture needed, especially since it was also necessary to
\nconnect with the international trends. And, in the second part, he gave signals
\nrelated to a certain freedom of creation, a certain freedom of representation,
\nwhich somehow brought him back to the elements of expression used in the
\ninterwar period. Of course, without the same scope, without the same breath,
\nbut the fact that these things were possible after a period of ideological
\npressure and ideological dogmatism represented a very strong signal for the
\nguild colleagues.<\/p>\n
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C\u0103lin Stegerean also
\ntold us about Maxy’s activity as head of Romania’s National Art Museum:<\/p>\n
Maxy basically set up this museum. You
\nshould know that the best painting repositories are those set up by Maxy in
\nthis museum. He was also the one who, together with other colleagues,
\nconfigured the Romanian Art Gallery and the Universal Art Gallery. He also had
\nthe idea of \u200b\u200bparallel activities, and
\nthis aimed at the general culturalization of the public and the connection of
\nthe arts with life in general.<\/p>\n
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At the opening
\nevent, the president of the Jewish Communities Federation in Romania, Silviu
\nVexler, also told us a few things about Maxy:<\/p>\n
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Maxy is one of the most complex
\nfigures of Romanian art, but at the same time he is one of the most prominent
\nJewish artists in Romania, along with Marcel Iancu, along with Victor Brauner;
\nthy are, if you like, the most visible symbols and the most easily recognizable
\nin terms of the presence of Jewish artists in Romania. At the same time, Maxy
\nis, as an artist, an extremely complex figure, whose creations vary greatly in
\nthe context of the eras in which he worked. It is essential that when his
\npaintings are viewed, the context in which they were created and in which Maxy
\nworked is also presented. Even if he is such a prominent figure, at the same
\ntime, unfortunately for the wider society, he is far, far too little known, and
\nthen the fact that such an exhibition takes place at the National Art Museum is
\na special chance for those who don’t know much about his work.<\/p>\n
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Silviu Vexler also told us about Maxy as a regular person, beyond the
\navant-guarde artist: <\/p>\n
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I don’t think one can ignore the person
\nbehind the artist. I think you can get to a point where you understand that
\nsometimes creation is not related to certain negative aspects of man, but you
\ncan’t completely erase it. If you like, the most famous situation of this
\nnature is about Wagner. Even today, Wagner is an artist not only extremely
\ncontroversial, but, for example, in Israel I think there was only one concert.
\nAt the same time, you can’t help but recognize Wagner’s creation as fundamental
\nto what opera stands for. However, I do not agree with attempts to erase the
\nnegative aspects of a man’s life just because he was an artist. I believe that
\nthe two aspect are complementary, they must be known in parallel and understood
\nat their true value. And at the end of the day, it is inevitable that what an
\nartist thinks will influence their work. That is why I would emphasize that the
\nadded value of this exhibition dedicated to Maxy is that it presents all the
\nfacets of his life. It’s not just a series of paintings on display, which would
\nhave certainly been welcome as such, but the context of the society in which he
\ncreated, how his life evolved and transformed, and how they influenced his work
\nmatters enormously. (MI)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian Art Museum is hosting, until the end of April, a new exhibition: M.H. Maxy – From avant-garde to socialism. Max Hermann Maxy (1895-1971) was a Romanian artist of Jewish origin, a painter, stage designer, and university professor at the Institute of Fine Arts. Maxy was one of the most important figures of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":164148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[45173,45172,45174],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-164147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-max-herman","tag-maxy","tag-romanian-avant-garde"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n