Victor Brauner (1903 - 1966) was one of the most important Surrealist artists of Romania - many critics say even that he was the most important one - and later became a major name in the European cultural and artistic world, after his works were discovered, with great enthusiasm, in Paris. But besides his French experience, Victor Brauner was still very much in connection, artistically speaking, to his home land, although he had to leave it due to the political and artistic censorship. His strange, distorted style, marked by the experience of war and suffering, the strenght with which he tried to find the real nightmares and obsessions of human beings, the unusual fatalism that marked his cruelly sincere view of the world, all made his works intriguing, admired and unsettling.
Victor Brauner was born on June 15th 1903 in Piatra Neamt, Romania, in a rather poor Jewish family, and from his early childhood he was drawn towards arts and literature. In 1916 - 1918 he was a pupil in Braila, at a prestigious school, and in 1921 he enrolled at the Fine Arts School in Bucharest. It was a short time of experiments and discoveries, during which the artist was influenced mainly by Cezanne and French Impressionism, preffering landscapes and genre scenes. But even from this early stage his style and manner were impressive, and it was in 1924 that he had his first ever solo exhibition, at the Mozart Gallery in Bucharest. With some success, as critics and art lovers became aware of this new voice.
By now his style was strongly marked by Expressionism and was moving rapidly towards more abstract manners, themes and lines, as Brauner was enthusiastically discovering the values and frenesy of the avantgarde movement. He would even be one of the founder of the faimus DaDa Romanian magazine 75 HP, which meant 75 Horsepower, a symbol of the admiration for the machines and engines, a strong influence coming from the Italian young artists. Some time later Brauner would also be one of the "voices" of the UNU magasine, another avantgarde publication. He left for Paris in 1925, but returned to Bucharest after a year, before finally settling in the French capital, in 1930.
He left Romania for he longer felt that he could make a career as an artist, while Paris offered him all that he wanted. Moving here, he met Brancusi, whom he befriended. Later, Brauner would meet Yves Tanguy, a close friend and admirer, who managed to introduce the young artist in the Surrealist circles. In 1934 Victor Brauner had his first solo show in Paris, but despite an enthusiatic presentation made by Andre Breton, other critics were harsh. Dissilusioned by the critical attacks, Brauner once again returned to Romania, where he would remain until 1938. It was then that he would move again to Paris, living and working with Tanguy. By now his style was his original and mature one, strange, distorted figures, apocalyptical implications, horrid frames and colours, as if Brauner was foreseeing the horror of the war to come.
Of special interest is that many of the figures painting in this timeframe were missing an eye or were severely mutilated. Not much later, the artist himself would lose one of his eyes in a bar brawl, which comenced as a joke and ended in tragedy. This incident will emphasise the dramatic style of Victor Brauner even further, as his own tragedy would be in just a few years heightened by the tragedy of others.
He fled to Switzerland because of the war and fear from Nazi persecutions, as he would have been a double target, both as a Jew and a "degenerate artist", as the Nazis called Surrealists. Only in 1945 he returned to Paris, poor but willing to continue his work and in 1947 he exhibited at the International Surrealist Show in Paris. His new influences were diverse and profound, ranging from Tarot cards to Ancient Egypt, Mexican art and so on. He travelled to Italy and Austria in the 50's, exhibiting several times, and died in 1966 in Paris, the place that became his real homecity.
A great and influential artist, highly controversial due to his style and themes but at the same time valued just for these, Victor Brauner is one of the most important European artists of Romanian birth, although his Jewish ancenstry also played a key-role in his evolution. An unique, highly original and interesting painter and draftsman, he is still highly popular nowadays.
2008-05-19
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