This year’s edition of Art Safari will feature exhibitions showcasing the work of Theodor Aman, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Reuven Rubin, Irina Dragomir and Barbara Klemm.

The event, set to take place between May 12 and August 7, will be held at Dacia-Romania Palace in Bucharest.

The exhibition dedicated to Theodor Aman, curated by Elena Olariu, aims to highlight the personality of the artist who contributed decisively to the modernization of Romanian art. Theodor Aman, the founder of the local School of Fine Arts, reflected in detail on the lifestyle of the Romanian social and cultural elite through genre scenes presenting snapshots from his contemporary world.

The work of two of the most important Spanish artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, will be present in an exhibition dedicated to Manuel de Falla’s ballet Le Tricorne. Picasso was commissioned to create the sets and costumes for the ballet Le Tricorne. For the London première in 1919, he also designed the dancers’ make-up. The Paris première was in 1920, and in 1921 the ballet received its Madrid première at the Teatro Real. Thirty years later, the success of the ballet was repeated in the United States with a set design by Dalí. The exhibition is curated by Óscar Carrascosa.

Art Safari’s contemporary pavilion will present the exhibition Irina Dragomir. Red, yellow and blue. Regarded as a rising star of contemporary Romanian art, she made herself known with figurative pop works.

The guest pavilion will showcase the Who was Reuven Rubin? exhibition, curated by David Rubin. One of the best known modernist Israeli artists Reuven Rubin (1893-1974) was born in Romania, in Galaţi, and left the country in 1922. He returned as Israel’s first ambassador to Romania, a position he held between 1948 and 1950. His work is present in the collections of major museums around the world: MoMA (New York), Musee d’art Moderne (Paris), Jewish Museum (New York) or the Tel Aviv Art Museum.

The anniversary pavilion will present the photography exhibition Barbara Klemm. Light and Dark. Curated by Matthias Flügge, the exhibition presents photographs by one of Germany’s most distinguished photographers. Many of her pictures have become “icons of contemporary history,” shaping the cultural memory of several generations. Klemm joined the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1959, working in the photo lab and producing photographic plates, before becoming a photographer on the editorial board for art, culture and politics in 1970. Her commissioned work for the newspaper took her to many of the most important events and places in the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and numerous other countries. Photos of East and West Germany before and after unification are the focus of this exhibition. 

At the eight editions it organized starting 2014, Art Safari welcomed more than 231,000 visitors. 

The event is designed as a yearly, temporary museum hosting a variety of exhibitions covering both patrimony and modern and contemporary art. It also runs an educational program with art workshops for children, and guided and private tours for the general public.

(Photo from 2017 edition of the event by Gabriel Petrescu | Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com