Alexandru Bassarab

For the prince sometimes known by this name, see Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia.
Self-portrait

Alexandru Bassarab (August 7, 1907 – July 8, 1941) was a Romanian painter, engraver, and fascist politician.

Biography

Bassarab was born in Bacău, where he graduated high school.[1] Likely a student of Ion Theodorescu-Sion's at the National School of Fine Arts, in subsequent years he attended both the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest at the private art school run by Constantin Vlădescu, where his teachers included Nicolae Tonitza, Francisc Șirato and Petre Iorgulescu-Yor.[2] Bassarab was a specialist in the linocut technique,[3] also praised for his work in woodcut. He continued to exhibit canvasses at various venues but, as noted at the time by art critic Alexandru D. Broșteanu, these were "timid", far less "rounded" than his woodcuts.[4]

Bassarab joined the Iron Guard, a native fascist movement, in 1932, and, as an aspiring propagandist, helped set up its artistic club, named after Ștefan Luchian, and its Ideea României Lodge.[1] He ran on its lists in the 1937 election, and took a seat in the Assembly of Deputies for Ialomița, but lost it immediately, when King Carol II ordered a clampdown.[1]

In September 1940, after assuming power under the National Legionary State, Bassarab emerged as leader of Grupul Grafic, a Guard-inspired artistic society, together with whom he exhibited at Sala Dalles. The group also comprised Gheorghe Ceglokoff and Marcel Olinescu.[5] Bassarab exhibited work that was highly political, including portraits of folk heroes such as Horia alongside Guard commanders such as Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Ion Moța and Gheorghe Clime. Ion Frunzetti, a Guard supporter and art critic, praised him as "the chronicler of a destiny", with "a certain Thracian toughness".[2][5]

Soon after, the Guard accorded its assassinated and exhumed founder, Codreanu, a lavish second funeral. The ceremony was held at Sfântul Ilie Gorgani Church in Bucharest, and the entrance to the church was flanked by two giant posters of archangels, massively enlarged versions of line engravings drawn by Bassarab in 1935.[6] These closely resemble Nașterea ("Birth"), another drawing by Bassarab. There, the Guard's patron, the Archangel Michael, watches over an infant at his feet. Above, a legend gives Codreanu's birthdate, giving the image a religious and propagandistic impact. Another drawing of his draws upon Romanian folklore to place Codreanu in the context of the Miorița legend.[7] In December 1940, Bassarab organized an exhibit, Munca legionară ("Legionary Labor"), also at Sala Dalles, which represented a fusion of art with Guardist ideology.[8] It was attended by Traian Brăileanu, the Arts Minister, and Guard Commander Horia Sima.[9]

Soon afterwards, the Guard fell from power, and Bassarab was arrested on orders from Conducător Ion Antonescu.[1] When Romania entered World War II in June 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, Bassarab was placed into a frontline unit with a high risk of casualties, participating in the recovery of Bessarabia. He vanished outside Țiganca, and legends began circulating that he had been killed while demining a field with his bare hands.[1] The most likely version is that he was captured and shot on the spot by the Red Army, in retaliation for the Romanians' treatment of Soviet prisoners.[1][10]

His widow, who had a degree in philology, never remarried, and died in 1999 at age 95. Their son Șerban, born in 1940, pursued a career as a mathematician.[11]

Selected works

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 (Romanian) Iurie Colesnic, "În culisele Istoriei. Un pictor căzut la Țiganca", in Timpul, February 8, 2014
  2. 1 2 Teacă, p.200
  3. ↑ Scăiceanu, p.384
  4. ↑ Alexandru D. Broșteanu, "Cronica plastică", in Gândirea, Nr. 4/1936, p.214-15
  5. 1 2 Ion Frunzetti, "Grupul Grafic (Sala Dalles)", in Universul Literar, Nr. 40/1940, p. 6
  6. ↑ Teacă, p.200-01
  7. ↑ Teacă, p.201
  8. ↑ Scăiceanu, p.384; Teacă, passim
  9. ↑ Teacă, p.202
  10. ↑ Morariu, p.32; Scăiceanu, p.384; Teacă, p.200
  11. ↑ Morariu, p.32

References

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