November 28, 2004
A Mestrovic in Bucharest
That was unexpected.
See, Bucharest is a good-sized city. So even after a year and a half, there are still some corners I haven't turned. On Friday I turned one, on the corner of Bulevardul Dacia and Strada Henri Coanda.
There's a little museum there, the Museum of Romanian Literature. I've always wondered what would be in a museum of literature -- old books? Statues of authors? -- but I've never found the time to go in. I crossed the street, and turned right instead of left...
...and there it was: the Mestrovic.
Okay: if you're not a fan of 20th century sculpture, you might not know Ivan Mestrovic. I wasn't myself, until I moved to the Balkans. Short version: he was certainly one of the greatest sculptors of the last 100 years, and there are some people who will argue that he was the greatest. Certainly he's the greatest sculptor ever to come out of the Balkans.
Mestrovic left pieces of his work all over the former Yugoslavia. I first had the delight of discovering them in Belgrade, and then found several more when we visited Zagreb. Even the mediocre ones are good, and the good ones are fantastic.
But I'd had no idea there was a Mestrovic piece here in Bucharest. And a big one, too.
It was a sculpture of Bratianu the Younger. Who he was... that's a whole post in its own right. In brief, he was the most influential politician in early 20th century Romania. Up until the First World War he was the country's great liberal leader. After that, well, the disaster of Romania's defeat in 1916 seems to have unhinged him a little. Long story.
But there was this little park, on the south side of Bulevardul Dacia, just a hundred meters or so from Strada Victorei. (Okay, if you're not from Bucharest, this is right in the center of the city. The American Embassy, the Hilton Hotel and the Goethe Institute are all within a few minutes walk.) And this little park, maybe thirty or forty meters on a side, had obviously been designed as a setting for the Mestrovic. In the center, set just a little back from the street, Bratianu sat on his stone seat, head tilted a little, watching the world go by.
It was a good Mestrovic. He'd caught the man's intelligence and energy, but also his neurotic sensitivity and vanity. The limbs were twisted in a way that subtly suggested the contortions of a mind perpetually at war with itself. The tilt of the head looked statesmanlike from one angle, but walk a step or two and you saw a great ego looking down its nose at you. The brow was furrowed, the eyes were looking within. A good Mestrovic, maybe a great Mestrovic...
...and it was trashed. The stone chair was covered with graffiti, as were the great stone legs. Several fingers had been chipped off. The little park had no benches, no flower gardens, no fountains; it was surrounded by crumbling, ugly houses, defaced by graffitti and garbage. There were no mothers with toddlers, no chess-playing old people, no teenagers with skateboards. The park had become a place for dogs to crap in. And nobody, it was clear, gave a damn about the Mestrovic.
Okay, there are much worse things going on in Bucharest than a neglected statue, however fine. Poverty, human misery, lives bent and broken by misgovernment in a hundred different ways. (See Claudia's last post, for instance.)
Still... it's like spitting on a Rembrandt. Just not something you expect to see in a civilized place.
Posted by douglas at November 28, 2004 06:55 PM"a civilized place"... Too bad most of us aren't.
Posted by: Jen at November 29, 2004 02:34 PMThere are (or were) other Mestrovic works in Romania. Carol I statue in the palace square, Ferdinand I (destroyed by communists), I think Michael the Brave in University plaza is also his.
Posted by: Stefan at November 29, 2004 03:50 PMI'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned Brancusi yet? But then the 20th century saw a great rift form between abstract and figurative sculpture. (And Romania isn't in the strict sense in the Balkan mountain chain.)
Posted by: Carlos at November 29, 2004 05:44 PMCorrection, Michael the Brave statue in Piata Universitatii is the work of Albert Ernest Carriere de Belleuse
Posted by: Stefan at November 29, 2004 10:09 PMhi claudia,
look, it happens that i know one or two things about that statue. it was kept for many years in the backyard of the 'artists union factory' - i don't know how to translate, it was a factory which manufactured goods for painters, sculptors, etc, near casa scinteii. nice building, aluminium facade, one of the few acceptable things from the 80's (or seventies?) - because the guy was a imperialist pig, right? actually, why not to get rid of it altogether, so they put some chewing gum in his lap and fired it. the stone was strong, not to mention the smooth master's finishing ;o) - so it didn't blew much. lucky us!
they tried harder with the king's statue from palace square. the bronze was melted and the red stone from the basis used on stalin's and later lenin's statue from casa scinteii. you can still see it there - just the stone.
about the park. it wasn't built for this statue. i have no ideea what was there 60 years ago. behind the museum it is still a small circiuma where the poets gathered, so in the 80's it was nicknamed BLS. betivii laolalta se string, the drunkers meeting point.
Posted by: bogdan at November 30, 2004 12:51 AMBogdan,
Thank you very much for the interesting information!
The statue was moved? Wow. It's a huge thing -- it must weigh at least five tons -- and it looks like it's been there forever.
Amazing.
Both park and statue are pretty neglected. The park has nothing in it -- no benches, no playground equipment for kids -- and is full of windblown trash, graffitti, and dog crap. The statue is heavily graffitied too, and has lost several fingers and some chips around the base. I saw some ugly discoloration -- that must have been the chewing gum experiment.
But it's all fixable. The park could be cleaned up in a day or two. It's a great location for a little park, too -- right in the middle of the downtown. Just put some benches there, and I'm sure you'd see people in it all day.
And the statue, well, Mestrovic built to last. Massive solid construction and, as you say, the Master's finish. Clean it up, replace the missing fingers (there must be pictures). It wouldn't even be very expensive.
There is an organization that's devoted to preserving Romania's artistic heritage. They get donations from all over the world. I think they mostly do restorations of monasteries and such, but maybe they might be interested in this too. Unfortunately, I have forgotten their name... Anyone?
Doug M.
thanks for thanking Doug.
yep, the statue was installed in early 90's, toghether with the king and queen portraits on the triumph arch, renaming with royal names of some boulevards, this kind of bringing back the history.
we have the know-how of moving big stuff around. some churches were put on rails and hidden behind blocks in bucharest - you can see one near unirea shopping centre, on the left hand as you come from universitate. it was 20 m in the front, at the street level. i'm wondering if we can just export casa popoului somewhere, it would be money well spend. anyone willing to receive it for a buck? bulgarians maybe?
Posted by: bogdan at November 30, 2004 11:21 PMpart II - it got truncated
anyone willing to receive it for a buck? bulgarians maybe?
the park can be cleaned but it will not be. anytime soon. maybe i prefer it this way. cleaning it means also installing a handsome 12 by 3m arched plastic 'banner' with the romanian flag and the mayor's name set in arial bold. with tilde instead on breve diacritics. benches? hell, no! please leave a small place for teenagers to have some fun in the evening.
BUT! now i realize that i vaguely remember that an older friend told me that this park was indeed built around the statue. the comrades removed it for 45 years but now it's in the original place! yes, when i was in the highschool, there was a surreal concrete box in the middle of the park.
i think i outsmarted myself with the chewing gum commentary. i meant that they put explosive in his lap. i suppose it survived because of the smooth finishing. that's why it misses fingers.
here in slovenia the people take great care of the monuments they have. culture is encouraged at state level - slovenians still complain that is not enough, bla bla ;). we have a long way to go. sure enough, i would like to live in romania. 200 years from now.
just kidding.