{"id":2064,"date":"1976-01-01T21:35:14","date_gmt":"1976-01-01T21:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2025-06-10T14:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T14:55:48","slug":"realograms-photo-exhibitions-organized-by-ion-grigorescu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/realograms-photo-exhibitions-organized-by-ion-grigorescu\/","title":{"rendered":"Realograms – exhibitions organized by Ion Grigorescu, 1976"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exhibition<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Exhibition poster of \"16 Artists Exhibiting Photographic Images,\" 1977,\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
\"Opening<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Opening of the exhibition \"Photographs Made by Artists\": from left to right\nart critics Mihai Dri\u0219cu and Titus Mocanu, behind him artist Ingo Glass, artist Decebal Scriba (with his back to the camera),\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
\"Opening<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Opening of the exhibition \"Photographs Made by Artists\": from left to right\nartist Decebal Scriba, art critic Titus Mocanu, artist Ingo Glass,\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
\"Opening<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Opening of the exhibition \"Photographs Made by Artists\": artist Florina L\u0103z\u0103rescu (Coulin),\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
\"Opening<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Opening of the exhibition \"Photographs Made by Artists\": Ion Grigorescu,\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
\"Exhibition<\/a>
1\/36<\/span>Exhibition poster \"Artists Exhibiting Photographs,\" 1982,\ncourtesy: Decebal Scriba<\/div><\/div>
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Better known for his seminal filmic and photographic practice that explored the unconventional and psychoanalytical interplay between the reality and the camera, the artist Ion Grigorescu also had an important role as exhibition organizer.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Realograms<\/em> was the first of a series of exhibitions initiated by Grigorescu in the late 1970s in Bucharest, having at their center photography and its complicated affairs with the notions of realism, style, kitsch, and painting, which traditionally dominated the so-called high arts during socialism. Opened at Casa Scriitorilor [Writers’ House] in Bucharest, outside the hegemonic control of the art system, the exhibition reflected the concern of Ion Grigorescu and his close circle of friends\u2014Matei L\u0103z\u0103rescu, Florina L\u0103z\u0103rescu (remarried Coulin), and Andrei Gheorghiu\u2014for a return to a new kind of realism, one mobilized by a direct observation of the existing social conditions, by an urgency to discover and represent reality with their own eye, generating a new type of \u201creportage,\u201d one that could resemble documentation. The new artist envisaged by Grigorescu was the realist artist<\/em>: one that was not in search for a style, but who, through the manipulation of several techniques, revived kitsch (through photography) as a form of liberation from the constraints of the ideological constellations of art; an artist who belonged to the crowd, concerned with the authenticity of his message, a communicator and a mediator of the social issues, a subtle interpreter of the psychology of people. This realism was, in his own opinion, closer to a political discourse; it aimed to resonate with its audience and generate discussions. Similar comments are uttered by Matei L\u0103z\u0103rescu, pointing the necessity to acknowledge the position of artist as researcher of the social sphere. The title of the exhibition series, Realograms<\/em>, was given by poet Ion Dr\u0103g\u0103noiu, a subtle wordplay which expressed the novelty of its approach. The painting and graphic works, as well the photographs displayed, were however denounced by art critic Cornel Radu Constantinescu in his review, being a demonstration of the artists own incapacity to be both painters and photographers, their work remaining just a \u201cdroll exercise\u201d in art.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Furthermore, this exhibition, alongside the others Grigorescu organized, succeeded to operate a detour from the usual circuits of art venues, controlled by the Union of Fine Artists and other official cultural institutions, being shown in off-venues such as the Writers’ House or the Culture House of the German-speaking minority. In 1976 Grigorescu approached the Union requesting a venue for a photographic exhibition project, but he was declined on the considerations that the Union did not have a Photographic department. Then, Grigorescu addressed his fellow artist, sculptor Ingo Glass, at that time in charge with the exhibition space of the \u201cFriedrich Schiller\u201d Culture House in Bucharest. The space was not new to Grigorescu, he saw there some exhibitions, which were consistent in their diversity and had a specific focus on photography. It is important to add that, in 1977, the Schiller House hosted the exhibition Oosteuropese Conceptuele Fotografie<\/em> curated by G. J. de Rook, for which, Grigorescu selected the Romanian participants and wrote an introductory text. On the one hand, Schiller House had an advantage as a cultural house dedicated to amateurs, because it was not administrated by the Union of Fine Artists, so the usual censorship could be avoided. On the other hand, this series of exhibitions undoubtedly signaled a breakthrough of the 1970s and 1980s generations, juxtaposing artistic works previously impossible to see together. As such, these exhibitions were compared by Grigorescu to the Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants,<\/em> and succeeded to offer a panopticon of the new artistic practices in Romanian contemporary art, seen through the glass of the various usages of photography (from photographic documentation, overpainted photography, photo-performance, conceptual photography to xerox and offset print).<\/p>\n

The artists exhibited at the invitation of Ion Grigorescu. The format was non-hierarchical, informal, coagulating a group of artists interested in alternative ways of experimenting with photography, counterbalancing the formal and stuffy atmosphere of the official art salons. Although the conditions of display were not ideal, and the model of exhibiting was a conventional one, it did articulate a free space to scrutinize the innovative photographic narratives and a meeting place for those initiated. The Schiller House had an additional meeting space where slide- and film projections could be presented. The exhibitions were sometimes accompanied by such events were artists presented their films, slides or music (Geta Br\u0103tescu, Ion Grigorescu and Istv\u00e1n Kancsura screened their films; Ion Dumitriu presented his photographic documentations of the impoverish areas of Bucharest such as Giule\u0219ti and Chiajna and Dorel Zaica introduced his pedagogical experiments with children from the poor neighborhood of Dude\u0219ti).<\/p>\n

The non-emphatic character of these series of exhibitions was reflected also by their titles, unpretentious and open to different forms of expressions and understanding of the photographic medium. Still, their ethics of representation conceal multiple registers of reading. The specific subjectivity, intimacy, and the banal picturing of communist reality reflected by some of the works would have caused public polemics, if presented in a Union’s venue, as it happened in the case of the exhibition Photography and Experimental Film: Studies, Projects, Visual Documentation<\/em>, organized in 1979 by the young art critic Radu Procopovici and the artist Decebal Scriba. According to Grigorescu, their wish was to move the kind of problematics tackled by photography to a space belonging to art circuits, to address the larger artistic community. However, their independently organized exhibition at C\u0103minul Artei Gallery in Bucharest, a venue of the Union of Fine Artists, was closed the day after the opening due to the topics of some experimental films screened, one of which being Ion Grigorescu’s film \u00c2me<\/em> (1977), in which the artist evoked a scene of circumcision.<\/em><\/p>\n

Realograms<\/em>, as well the whole series of exhibitions organized by Grigorescu at the \u201cFriedrich Schiller\u201d Culture House in Bucharest, expanded his trials to transform the medium of photography as a point of convergence of multiple artistic experiments. The initial impulse for these exhibitions was to introduce photography as a practice in its own right, and to give voice to a circle of friends and artists with whom Grigorescu was in contact. Secondly, Grigorescu\u2019s deep engagement with photography and film disputed the primary tenets of painting as adopted by official art and with the largely acknowledged semantics of photorealism. The approach of reality via photography entailed critical views upon the restricted nature of an ideologically embellished life. The treatment of image became thus a statement. As such, the exploration of non-spectacular events, humble motifs of daily-life or the revisitation of iconic representations of propaganda, transformed photography into a medium of exorcising reality. Photography amended the everyday, as it was better adapted to contemporaneity than painting, as Grigorescu stated. The realism promoted by Grigorescu was different from all the historical realisms; it conceptualized art as an artistic non-achievement which captured the Real and the Social by looking closely into the psychology of life, silencing the individualism of the author.<\/p>\n

Retrospectively, this series of exhibitions called for a certain soft-subversive reading as they wanted to elude the system by enabling alternative channels to emerge inside of it, counterbalancing the rigidity of the art institutional apparatus in Romania, and operating in an unusual way, in low-key so to say, in areas dedicated to amateurs, thus penetrating the traditional way of producing and understanding art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Personal conversations of author with Ion Grigorescu.<\/p>\n

E-mail correspondence with Ion Grigorescu on May 3\u20134, 2021.<\/p>\n

E-mail correspondence with Decebal Scriba on April 30, May 4, 11, 2021.<\/p>\n

E-mail correspondence with Florina Coulin on May 7, 8, 12, 2021.<\/p>\n

E-mail correspondence with Matei L\u0103z\u0103rescu on May, 17, June 8, 2021.<\/p>\n

E-mail correspondence with Dan Mih\u0103l\u021bianu on May 13, 2021.<\/p>\n

Facebook correspondence with Gheorghe Rasovszky May 5, 2021.<\/p>\n

Ion Grigorescu. The Man with a Single Camera<\/em>, ed. Alina \u0218erban (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013), 206, 218.<\/p>\n

Probleme noi ale imaginii <\/em>[New Problems of the Image] (Bucharest: Union of Fine Artists of the Socialist Republic of Romania; Galeria Orizont; Atelier 35, February-March 1974), catalogue.<\/p>\n

Ion Grigorescu, \u201cUn copil al socialismului\u201d [A Child of Socialism], Plural<\/em>, no. 2 (1999): 73, 76.<\/p>\n

Ion Grigorescu \u201cDespre artistul realist\u201d [On Realist Artist], Arta<\/em>, no. 12 (1973): 22\u201323.<\/p>\n

Ruxandra Balaci, \u201cPhotography\u2014A Possible Chronology of an Experimental Chapter,\u201d in Experiment in Romanian Art Since 1960<\/em>, ed. Irina Cios (Bucharest: Soros Centre for Contemporary Art, 1997), 68, 70.<\/p>\n

Ion Grigorescu, Jurnal \u0219i vise. Ion Grigorescu 1976\u20131979 <\/em>[Diary and Dreams. Ion Grigorescu 1976\u20131979] (Bucharest: printed by the author, 2014), 11, 106.<\/p>\n

Ion Grigorescu Painted Work 1963\u20132017. <\/em>Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9<\/em>, ed. Erwin Kessler (Bucharest: Vellant Publishing House, 2017), 400, 402, 456\u2013457.<\/p>\n

Mihai Dri\u0219cu, \u201cManifest\u0103ri expozi\u021bionale la Casa de Cultur\u0103 Schiller\u201d [Exhibitions Events at the \u201cFriedrich Schiller\u201d Culture House], Arta<\/em>, no. 3 (1978): 26.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The first exhibition Grigorescu organized, New Problems of the Image<\/em>, took place in 1974 at Atelier 35\/Orizont Gallery in Bucharest and travelled in the same year at Atelier 35 in Cluj. He also had a key involvement in the landmark exhibitions Study <\/em>and Study 2 <\/em>in Timi\u0219oara as co-organizer alongside artist Paul Gherasim and art critic Coriolan Babe\u021bi.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Cornel Radu Constantinescu, \u201cCasa Scriitorilor,\u201d Sc\u00eenteia<\/em>, 26 February 1976.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Better known for his seminal filmic and photographic practice that explored the unconventional and psychoanalytical interplay between the reality and the camera, the artist Ion Grigorescu also had an important role as exhibition organizer.[1] Realograms was the first of a series of exhibitions initiated by Grigorescu in the late 1970s in Bucharest, having at their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"keywords":[],"locations":[73,26],"persons":[510,509],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keywords?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"locations","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"persons","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tranzit.org\/exhibitionarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/persons?post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}