A major exhibition of Communist era Romanian art is running at the new National Library in Bucharest. Called 'The Artist and Power: Faces of Romanian painting between 1950 and 1990' (Artistul şi Puterea. Ipostaze ale picturii româneşti între anii 1950-1990) the new exhibition brings together around 600 art works by over 300 artists and includes many rarely exhibited and little known pieces.

Produced during a time of repression and censorship, many of the works depict a protest against the Communist regime in Romania, such as a painting showing a peasant being crucified over a Romania shaped hole. Others are painted in styles frowned on by the regime, for example cubism and expressionism.

The exhibition is one of the largest and most ambitious to date and includes works by Romanian masters Andreescu, Luchian, Ressu, Dărăscu and Ghiaţă, as well as cubism, expressionism and a section dedicated to art that criticized the soviet influence on the country. The exhibits were gathered from museums and collections both in Romania and abroad.

The exhibition will run until December 2 at the National Library on Bulevardul Unirii, Bucharest. Admission is free and the exhibition is open to the public Monday to Friday from 10:00 until 18:00.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com