Known in particular
\nfor literature and fine arts, the Romanian avant-garde is also represented by
\nsome outstanding names in the field of photography. One such example is Aurel
\nBauh, who is better known in western Europe and the US than in his home country
\nRomania. A Romanian-born Jew, he studied in Berlin in the 1920s with the
\nUkrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko and then in Paris with Fernard Leger,
\none of the first French painters to exhibit cubist paintings. The work of Aurel
\nBauh focused less on documentary photography and more so on art photography. He
\nmoved to Bucharest towards the end of the 1930s, where he lived until 1960.
\nAcademy member Emanuel Badescu tells us more about the work of Aurel Bauh
\ncreated in Romania:<\/p>\n
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\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Aurel Bauh
\ncomes from Oltenia, in southern Romania. He was born in Craiova in 1900. We
\nknow little of his early school years, but we do have records about his time in
\nParis while he was in his early 20s. He was in close contact with the Romanian
\nartists who lived and worked in the French capital at a time when the
\navant-garde movement was flourishing. He was familiar with the exhibitions of
\nthe artists who represented this artistic movement, including photographers
\nlike Man Ray. Towards the end of Carol II’s rule, Aurel Bauh returned to
\nRomania, moving to Bucharest. He had one studio on Popa Rusu Street and another
\non the Victory Boulevard, called Studio 41.<\/p>\n
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\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This studio
\nbecame a meeting place and inspiration for several avant-garde artists, such as
\nSasa Pana, Jules Perahim, Harry Brauner, and Geo Bogza. In 1938, Bauh had his
\nfirs exhibition of ‘photo paintings’, titled Same Age as Brassai and Man Ray.
\nIn the 1950s, when the terrible communist regime in Romania was just beginning,
\nAurel Bauh managed to publish a surprising album with photos. It is now in the
\narchives of the Romanian Academy Library, and Emanuel Badescu described it
\nfor us: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Remarkably, in
\n1957 he gathered together all his works about Bucharest, and created a
\nsingularly beautiful album, because it is the only one, or one of the few
\nalbums about Bucharest that has as its theme the beauty of the city. It is no
\nwonder that the album has a short but superb foreword written by another pariah
\nof early communism in Romania, Tudor Arghezi. These two great artists joined
\nhands in this album entitled ‘Bucharest’, an album, which, aside from the
\npoetry of the images, has another feature, which you could not find even in the
\nwork of Christian photographers of the time. In its pages we find a great
\nnumber of photos depicting worshippers entering Christian Orthodox churches.
\nPerusing the album, we easily notice that Aurel Bauh had a vast fine art
\nexperience. It seems he appreciated Impressionist painters, especially Monet. In
\nthis album there are several photos that point to the French master. He wanted
\nto capture an aspect that his peers did not: the poetry of the city, its
\narchitectural styles – art nouveau and art deco – the monumentality of
\nbuildings or sculpture ensembles such as Carol Park, images from Cismigiu Park,
\nand the Dambovita canal. They all have a special poetry and recall
\nImpressionist painters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In 1960, Aurel
\nBauh managed to emigrate to Paris, where he died in 1964. His photos, highly
\nvalued today, can be found in private collections, in France and elsewhere. You
\ncan even find his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2011, one of
\nthe exhibitions at the Les Promenades Photographiques Festival in Vendome was
\ndedicated to his work. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Known in particular for literature and fine arts, the Romanian avant-garde is also represented by some outstanding names in the field of photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":50395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45274,35658,45275],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-aurel-bauh","tag-photography","tag-romanian-avantgarde"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n