The 17th of July 2008
“A HEART AS GREAT AS A COUNTRY”: Exhibition-Event Dedicated to Queen Marie and Hosted by ELITE ART GALLERY
On Thursday, the 17th of July 2008 ELITE ART GALLERY opened the painting exhibition A HEART AS GREAT AS A COUNTRY, a thematic exhibition dedicated to the personality of Queen Marie of Romania and her artistic legacy. The exhibition was inaugurated at 11 hrs with a press conference and could be visited on the basis of prior appointment.
The exhibition A HEART AS GREAT AS A COUNTRY is dedicated to Queen Marie and it is organized within the “Painters of Today in Balcic” project, celebrating 70 years since the death of Queen Marie (July 18, 1938). The paintings exhibited show various aspects of Queen Marie’s artistic personality and focus on the rich themes that the edifice she founded in Balcic had to offer.
The works have been painted during the fifth edition of the “Painters of Today in Balcic” project. Be they oil on canvas or watercolours, they all render the visual richness and the spiritual significance of the castle in Balcic, the hanging gardens or the decorations chosen by the Queen herself. The villas of the royal park, the poplar-bordered alleys, the fountains and porches, sculptures, frames, the waterfall and flowers stimulated the creativity of the painters who attempted to convey the luminous charm of the place and the unique artistic spirit of the Queen. In fact, the entire compound conceived by a painter of the day and the Queen herself bears the imprint of a romantic sensitivity and an intention to reach a spiritual communion.
However, the most frequently chosen theme remains “Stella Maris”, the small byzantine church erected by Queen Marie as her castle’s chapel and especially intended to receive her heart posthumously, as a sign of the love she had for the closest place to her soul: the town of Balcic.
„Stella Maris – the smallest church in the country; a pious orthodox shrine which I, the Protestant, have build because Stella Maris lies ahead of me like a symbol of my life; a shrine devoted to a confession of faith which is not mine, in a country where I once was a stranger and which I made mine by the joy, sorrow and labour that have linked me to it more and more with each year that passed.” (Queen Marie)
„My body shall rest in Curtea de Arges beside my beloved husband, King Ferdinand but I do wish that my heart be sat below the stone slabs of the church that I myself have erected... I want to rest there in the middle of the beauties I forged, in the middle of the flowers I planted. As there shall lie my heart, I do not want it to be a mourning place; on the contrary, let it be a place of peace and charm, like it used to be when I was alive” (Queen Marie)
The artworks displayed on this occasion belong to Romanian and international painters who took part in the art camps organized in Balcic within the “Painters of Today in Balcic” project, prompted in 2004. The list of authors features Marilena Murariu, Mihai Sarbulescu, Cristian Paraschiv, Simion Craciun, Vitalie Butescu, Pierre Zoran Petrel, Ion Lazar, George Mircea, Alexandru Andronache, Mihai Tarus, Larisa Astreyn, Andreea Palade-Flondor, Angela Tomaselli, Ana-Ruxandra Ilfoveanu, Emilia Pop and Florin Ferendino.
What turned this exhibition into an event was the first and exclusive display of two exceptional works, namely two full-size paintings depicting the Romanian monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. Authored by the painter Ion Draghici subsequent to a comprehensive documenting, the paintings follow the canons of the classic official portraiture (the full portrait of the sovereigns), therefore being unique. They are remarkable from the point of view of their documentary value, as a tribute paid to the sovereigns and as artworks, thus being an exceptional achievement presented to the Romanian audience as a first. Following their display on the premises of ELITE ART GALLERY between the 17th and 21st of July 2008, the two paintings will be lent to Cotroceni National Museum, with the aim of exhibiting them.
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