Although the RomanIA exhibition hosted by the National Art Museum of Romania, would be more worthy of comment than praise, I choose not to put any more evil in the world, because there is enough of it.
Just keep in mind that it is good that the exhibition existed or exists (that it was extended), but it lacked very little to be a top exhibition. I imagine that the effort to organize an exhibition of this caliber was huge and honestly I left saddned that it was an exhibition organized according to the Romanian principle "merge si asa".
Returning to my experience. In 2019, 8 months pregnant, I went to Paris to the Pompidou Center with my Matisse blouse. A blouse inspired by the painting La blouse roumaine. You know the story of Matisse blouses, I won't repeat it.
There were a few magical days, a few days that gave me strength for what was to come and that charged me for the entire covid period when nothing happened, when we didn't see our friends for months, when ... you know what that period meant.
If you've ever been in front of Matisse's painting in Paris, you know what energy it gives off and how it seems special somehow, even though it's small compared to the other works exhibited around it.
Well, La blouse roumaine came to Bucharest, the largest exhibition ever organized around Romanian shirts took place, you could bet that I'll be there to see it. And here I was, 7 years later, again in front of the painting. It was little awkward in the middle of a large, rather empty hall, me a little more mature, a little more experienced... I would have liked to bring Ilinca too because in the 2019 picture she was there, but Ilinca has school and who knows in 7 years when the Pompidou Center reopens, maybe the planets will align and we will both be in front of the painting again. This time it wasn't meant to be.
And the experience wasn't the same. Yes, I was there, yes, I saw it, but something was missing. Was the magic missing? Was Matisse's painting lost among so many local masterpieces with Romanian blouses? Was the story missing? I will also post about the exhibition, because I honestly don't regret going to see it, plus I rediscovered Grigorescu, who was brilliant, but the painting... The painting was something in its context, in the Parisian context, in that light, in that world, in that story. You were leaving Paris and entering the museum. Pompidou was special. The studio was special. And so the painting was special. I would like to visit an exibit of La blouse Roumaine somewhere close if the painting will be exhibited during the Pompidou restoration, to experience another vision of the exhibition, another story, but in Bucharest, with or without the painting, the exhibition was just as valuable.
I happen to know that the Matisse story will continue and I will be here to write about it. And maybe life will be good to us and we will all be here when the painting returns home and we will all go to see it in Paris. Until then... go to the Romania Exhibition at the National Museum of Art of Romania, pay attention to Grigorescu's paintings (I promise I'll write about it), discover how IA has been used over time as a propaganda tool, how its image has been tarnished many times, how foreigners have elevated it to what we know it to be today and how Romanians have used Romanian blouses to be something they are not. Take about two hours of your time to read everything and go to the museum with your kids.
That is it about the painting La blouse roumaine by Henri Matisse exhibited in Bucharest and about my Matisse blouse that saw the painting for the second time.
