Victor Brauner: A Surreal Journey Through Imagination

ART, gallery

Victor Brauner was a Romanian-born artist and painter who played a significant role in the surrealist movement of the 20th century. Known for his distinctive style and imaginative use of symbolism, Brauner created a vast body of work that explored themes of mysticism, mythology, and the unconscious mind. He was part of a close-knit circle of avant-garde artists that included the likes of Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali, and his contributions to the surrealist movement have had a lasting impact on the world of art.

Born in Romania, his innovative and surreal approach to painting never quite fit into the nationalistic wave that swept through his homeland in the early 20th century. An artist whose life and career were defined by displacement, both geographically and artistically. He found his true home in the artistic circles of Paris, where he befriended fellow avant-garde luminaries like Constantin Brancusi and André Breton. Brauner's move to France was not without its challenges, however and he was forced to navigate the tumultuous political landscape of the time - including the rise of the Nazis and the imposition of Socialist Realism in post-war Romania. Throughout it all, Brauner remained dedicated to his art, creating a body of work that was both deeply personal and universally resonant. Today, only a handful of his works remain in his native country, but they serve as a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of this enigmatic artist.

The retrospective exhibition of Victor Brauner's work takes us on a journey through the artist's early experimentation with various avant-garde styles in Bucharest. From cubism to Expressionism, Dada and Constructivism, Brauner cycled through a range of styles before finding his true home in Surrealism. Along the way, he produced some works that, while intriguing, border on kitsch - featuring fire-breathing dragons and snake-covered women. However, the exhibition also showcases some of Brauner's most innovative and playful pieces, such as The Postman and Eyes in the Pockets, which combine text and bovine imagery reminiscent of Picasso.

After joining the Surrealist movement in Paris in 1933, Brauner's work took on a new dimension, establishing him as one of the most important artists of the movement. Inspired by writer Georges Bataille, Brauner produced a striking self-portrait in which one eye bled red - an eerie foreshadowing of the tragic loss of an eye in a fight five years later. Always alert to the dangers of fascism, Brauner's art took on a political edge, and he produced two striking pieces influenced by George Grosz. Through this retrospective, we gain a fascinating insight into the evolution of Brauner's artistic vision, as well as the political and cultural context that shaped his life and work.

Victor Brauner's return to Romania in 1935 marked the beginning of his involvement with a Surrealist group in the country, where he collaborated with poets Gherasim Luca and Gellu Naum and created small-sized paintings that were easy to carry around. Brauner's style became more akin to that of Salvador Dalí during this period, with works such as Antithesis (1937) and On the Pattern (1937) displaying Dalí-esque qualities.

During World War II, Brauner had difficulty painting and instead turned to wax and sculpture. His painting Stable unstable, plain of Théus (1942) evokes the works of Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini with its portrayal of a nude sleepwalking woman whose hair transforms into a mystical animal. Correspondence and other documents reveal how Brauner maintained connections with Romania during this period, collaborating on projects with Naum and contributing illustrations for his novel.

Romania's broader modernist connections with France, such as the streets in Timisoara named after Dadaists Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco, could have been explored more thoroughly. Brauner was accompanied in his adopted country by other notable figures, including poet Isidore Isou and playwright Eugène Ionesco. Brancusi, Brauner's friend and fellow expat, who like Brauner was largely ignored in Romania during his lifetime, will be the subject of an exhibition in Timisoara in September.

Brauner's quest for fresh avenues of expression within the Surrealist movement in the post-war era, in the wake of its commercialization in advertising and cinema, was a journey marked by mixed outcomes. While his attempts to channel Henri Rousseau's Primitivist ethos in his work from the latter's former studio were not always successful, Brauner's artistic journey still yielded some notable creations.

Amongst his works, Untitled (1952) and Deported (1956) might come off as the weaker links, with the former featuring a car fueled by a limp phallus, no less. However, the Rétractés series is a standout collection that showcases Brauner's prowess in the medium. His skeletal, cyborg-esque beings, existing in a realm that seems to transcend the physical plane, are particularly arresting in Depolarisation of Intimacy II (1952). Here, they are seen fleeing from each other in a landscape devoid of corporeal boundaries, evoking a sense of surreal horror that is impossible to ignore.

Brauner's final works, a series of line drawings featuring animals with oversized, expressive eyes, hark back to the interwar period's great paintings. These pieces, along with the rest of his oeuvre, underscore Romania's significant contribution to the Surrealist movement, and the exhibition as a whole is a powerful testament to Brauner's artistic legacy.

February 17th - May 28th

National Museum of Art in Timisoara

Victor Brauner: Inventions and Magic

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