Born in 1872 Romanian artist Frederic Storck studied sculpture under Ion Georgescu in Bucharest from 1888 to 1893 and under Wilhelm von Rümann at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in München from 1893 to 1897.
An admirer of Adolf von Hildebrand and Rodin, Storck also echoed in some of his sculptures Donatello’s works. The artist experimented with Art Deco stylisation in a series of nudes - among them also "Salome" - created between the '20s and '30s.
A professor of draughtsmanship at the Fine Arts School in Bucharest and a founder-member of Tinerimea Artistica (Artistic Youth), he decorated his house in Bucharest - later turned into a museum - with his wife, the artist Cecilia Cuţescu-Storck (1879-1969).
The Muzeul de Arta Frederic Storck si Cecilia Cutescu-Storck (Frederic and Cecilia Cuţescu-Storck Art Museum), designed by French architect Alexandre Clavel between 1911 and 1913 in a basic German Renaissance style, is definitely the best place in Bucharest where you can admire the artist's works together with those of his wife, his father Karl and brother Carol.
I saw Storck’s "Salome" at Bucharest’s Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României (National Museum of Art of Romania - MNAR) and was fascinated by its curvilinear form and smooth and elegant contours.
Its style made me think about the works of another Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brâncuşi (1876-1953), the pioneer of modernism, who grew up in the village of Hobiţa Romania, Gorj, near Târgu Jiu, close to Romania's Carpathian Mountains, an area known for its rich tradition of folk crafts and woodcarving in particular.
Since a personal research I carried out in Bucharest involved also Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Storck-Brâncuşi connection led me to think about a very stylish and elegant series of pictures taken by Eve Arnold in 1956 and portraying Silvana Mangano - one of Pasolini's favourite actresses - looking at Brâncuşi's works at New York's MOMA.
If you're a fan of Eve Arnold's photographs you may be happy to hear that a new book about her, entitled All About Eve, will be out soon, published by teNeues.
My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR - Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.
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