Diaspora

Entries Tagged as 'Diaspora'

Romania photography by Joseph Koudelka – Paris Exhibition

November 18th, 2010 · Comments Off on Romania photography by Joseph Koudelka – Paris Exhibition · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, PEOPLE

Romania photography by Joseph Koudelka – Paris Exhibition, Caroussel du Louvre, courtesy of Eric Franck Fine Arts, London EC1,
JOSEF KOUDELKA

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After a degree in engineering from the Technical University in Prague, Josef Koudelka (b. 1938, Boskovice, Maravia) obtained a Rolleiflex camera and began photographing stage productions for theatre magazines. After leaving the theatre, he began documenting gypsy life in Romania, Slovakia and Western Europe. In 1968, Koudelka photographed the Soviet invasion of Prague and the Czech resistance efforts. In 1969 he was anonymously awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal for these photographs, only publicly acknowledging authorship following the death of his father in 1985.

Koudleka gained political asylum in England in 1970, joining Magnum Photos Agency in 1971 and continuing to travel around Europe and photograph its landscape.

For a full selection of available photographs by Josef Koudelka, please contact Eric Franck Fine Art.

Poetry in Translation (LXXIX): Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942) – “Ego”

November 1st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942), born in London, the daughter of Anselmo Vivanti an Italian political exile from Mantua and of Anna Landau, coming from a German Jewish family with strong literary traditions, Anna Vivanti married Jack Smith Chartres (1862-1927), an Anglo-Irish barrister of strong Republican leanings, who negotiated together with Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith the Anglo-Irish treaty leading to the Independence of the Republic of Ireland.

Anna Vivanti Chartres was a close friend of Giosue Carducci and her poetry is regarded being part of the ‘decadent’ stream of the late Italian romantic poetry.

Spanish-Romanian Cultural Complicities (I)

October 30th, 2010 · Comments Off on Spanish-Romanian Cultural Complicities (I) · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Translations

Another prominent exile was Alejandro Cioranescu (b Romania 1911 – d. Tenerife 1999) doctor Honoris causa of the University of Tenerife at La Laguna – an expert on the Spanish baroque and on the French-Spanish bibliography his books Estudios de literatura española y comparada (La Laguna, 1954), El barroco o el descubrimiento del drama (La Laguna,1957), Los hispanismos en el francés clásico (Madrid, 1987) and Bibliografía franco-española, 1600-1715 (Madrid 1977) remain to this day standard references in the field.

Amongst the ‘greats’ of universal literature who found exile in Spain was Horia Vintila (1915, Romania – 1992, Spain) who wrote directly in several languages including Spanish in which he published several novels Marta, o la segunda guerra, (Barcelona, 1987), Persecutez Boèce!, (Barcelona, 1983), Un sepulcro en el cielo, (Barcelona, 1987). He was the nominee of the prestigious French literary Prix Goncourt in 1960 which he was compelled to renounce following a character-assassination witch hunt masterminded by the Romanian secret services through the French left-wing press. It is worth noting that the novel in question “Dieu est ne en exil” which was translated in fourteen languages was NOT a political novel and it was inspired by the life of the exiled Roman poet Ovid who died on the Romanian shores of the Black Sea.

Horia Vintila was also a prolific essayist and literary critic in Spanish with titles such as: Presencia del mito, (Madrid, 1956), Poesia y liberdad, (Madrid, 1959), Espana y otras mundos, (Barcelona, 1970), Mestor de novehita, (Madrid, 1972), Introduccion a la mundo peor, (Barcelona, 1978), Literatura y disidencia, (Madrid, 1980), Los deechos humanus, la novsledel sigle XX, (Madrid, 1981). Horia Vintila was professor of Universal Literature at the Official School of Journalism and later founded the Chair of Universal Literature at the Complutense University in Madrid.

During the last two decades an expert of Romanian literature is the former director of the Instituto Cervantes in Bucharest, Joaquin Garrigos Bueno a prolific translator of more than 30 Romanian novels in particular of Mircea Eliade (Boda en el cielo, Diario intimo de la India, Los jovenes barbaros, La noche de San Juan) and Emil Cioran (El ocaso del Pensamiento, El libro de la quimeras, Brevario de los vencidos,) but also of Camil Petrescu, Emil Voiculescu, Liviu Rebreanu and other classics and contemporary writers.

Architect Octavian Ciupitu, “Curierul Romanesc”, Sweden, September 2009 – Book Review

October 26th, 2010 · Comments Off on Architect Octavian Ciupitu, “Curierul Romanesc”, Sweden, September 2009 – Book Review · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

an extract from the book “La Apa Vavilonului” (At Babel’s river), volume 2 (2001) by Monica Lovinescu (1923-2008), journalist, political analyst, radio broadcaster, anti-communist and Human rights Activist exiled in Paris:

In Romania dissidence was an exception. Our resistance was present when it did not exist in the other satellite countries and it ended just as it started with our neighbouring countries. We fought and died in the Carpathian mountains, as the West was blind and deaf, basking in its victory and forgetting its hostages. From the prisons where our élite was destroyed in the 1960s emerged only the shadows of our earlier determination. Three successive waves of terror – 1948, 1952 and 1958 – had drained the collective organism. We caved into, a near-total silence. We sacrificed ourselves for nothing. With this sense of utter uselessness most of the survivors emerged from the jails, some of whom, while “free”, remained at the beck and call of the Securitate..

The Art of Nicolae GROZA

October 3rd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, PEOPLE

NICOLAE GROZA a Romanian artist now living in Belgium, near Liege, follows the tradition of Transylvanian icon painters on glass and his themes often borrow symbols, motifs and the graphism from the old icons. However Groza gets his inspiration from non-religious subjects – from folk legends and historical characters.
Nicoale has an extraordinary sense of humour, imagination and a high artistry which sets him apart from his contemporaries. He has held many individual and group exhibitions of these works which are in private collections in England, Belgium, Romania, Germany, France.
Nicolae Groza’s main form of expression are huge murals, mosaics, decorative panels in ceramics.
His oil paintings are to be found in Musems and private collections in Europe.Nicolae Groza’s main form of expression are huge murals, mosaics, decorative panels in ceramics.
His oil paintings are to be found in museums and private collections in Europe.

Poetry (LXXVI): “Bocet din Gorj”- culegere de Constantin BRAILOIU

September 30th, 2010 · Comments Off on Poetry (LXXVI): “Bocet din Gorj”- culegere de Constantin BRAILOIU · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry

« ALE MORTULUI » (Gorj) culegere de C. Brâiloiu

( BOCET culegere de Constantin Brailoiu, transcris de Petru Comarnescu si transmis lui Mircea Milcovitch )
Zorilor, zorilor, / Voi surorilor, / Voi sà nu pripiti, / Sà ne nàvàliti, / Pînâ si-o gàti, / Dalbul de pribeag, / Un cuptor de pîine, / Altul de màlai, /Nouà buti de vin, / Nouâ de rachiu, / Si-o vacuta grasà, / Din ciread-aleasà, / Sà-i fie de masà. /

Din ciread-aleasà,

Sà-i fie de masà.

Mircea Milcovitch*** (n. 1941) care ne-a transmis “Bocetul” din Gorj este nascut in Romania unde a studiat la Institutul Nicolae Grigorescu, dupa care s-a stabilit in Franta. Artist sculptor de reputatie mondiala, lucrarile lui Milcovitch sunt prezente in muzee si colectii din Franta si din intreaga lume.

http://www.vincentroman.com/blog/mircea-milcovitch-nude-shapes-and-forms/

Palm Springs Art Gallery (California) exhibits American-Romanian sculptor Christopher Georgesco

September 20th, 2010 · Comments Off on Palm Springs Art Gallery (California) exhibits American-Romanian sculptor Christopher Georgesco · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, PEOPLE

Michael H. Lord Gallery is a prestigious Art Venue in Palm Springs, California. Established in 1978, the Michael H. Lord Gallery is located in the Palm Springs Uptown Design District at 1090 North Palm Canyon Drive.
he three sculptures seen in the centre of the showroom for the current exhibition are by American-Romanian artist Christopher Georgesco. Born in Nebraska, Christopher grew up in California, where his father, Haralamb Georgesco had his private practice. Georgesco Senior was an internationally renowned architect of the early Modernist movement in Europe and the United States. His archives were donated by Christopher to the Getty Museum in the care of Special Collections Department.
Pasinetti House a listed building by Haralamb Georgesco, situated in LA and restored in 2008 by Willow Glen Partners. Georgesco Jr sculpture is in the background (permission; Tim Braseth_

Book Review – ‘Train to Trieste’ by Domnica Radulescu

September 17th, 2010 · Comments Off on Book Review – ‘Train to Trieste’ by Domnica Radulescu · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, Reviews

‘Last Train to Trieste’ by Domnica Radulescu
During the 20th century Romanians made France or Germany their adoptive country, although some settled elsewhere in the world. But those Romanians who wrote in French or German were little translated in English and even fewer of them wrote in English. We can think of Panait Istrati, Countess of Noailles, or Princess Bibesco, before WWII who wrote in French and after the war, amongst the exile novelists such as Virgil Gheorghiu, Mircea Eliade, Vintilă Horia, Gregor von Rezzori, Herta Muller, who wrote in French, Romanian or German.Nevertheless few of their titles were rendered in English and amongst the latter fewer still became bestsellers, let alone enjoy the accolade of an International Prize.

If the Czechs had Kundera, the Albanians Ismail Kadere, so far the spotlight of international repute has generally bypassed Romania, leaving her literature in the shadows. This lapse could not be assigned only to the paucity of translation alone, but primarily to the absence of a broader perspective by the Romanian fiction writers, who were reduced for far too long, by Nicolae Ceausescu, to write in the wooden language of Marxist sycophantic speak.

Domnica Radulescu, known as an Academic rather than a fiction writer is only at her second novel, yet the omens are good: watch out this space.

Anton Golopentia (1909-1951) Sociologist, Philosopher, Martyr of the Communist Prisons

August 14th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Diaspora, PEOPLE

Between 1941 and 1944 Anton Golopentia carries out an ethnographic research on the scattered Romanian villages of the Ukrainian steppes between the Dniestre and the Bug rivers as part of the programme IREB (Identificarea Românilor de la Est de Bug).

On 16 January 1950 Anton Golopentia is arrested and following a sham trial typical of the worst excesses of witch-hunt ever known under the dictatorship: he expiates under appalling conditions of torture and neglect, 18 months after his arrest in the Vacaresti political prison.

For over forty years of Communist censorship and a further decade of pre-programmed amnesia in post-Communism, the works of Anton Golopentia could not come to print. However the results of his investigations could only be published under the care of his daughter Sanda Golopentia, Professor at Brown University in the United States. under the title „Românii de la Est de Bug” (Romanian Settlements East of River Bug).

Romanian Foreign Affairs (II): REDGRAVE & CAPSA

August 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

The “Balkans” allude to the author’s maternal family who were Aromanians who fled the Ottoman destruction of Moscopole during the 18th century to settle, North of the Danube, in Romania. The family name was Capsa and they soon made their mark there as confectioners to the Royal Family but also Generals and aviators serving in WWI. Having been schooled under the most famous French patissier in Paris one of the Capsa brothers returned to Bucharest to open on Calea Victoriei the “Cafe Capsa” which became the Society’s favourite place and attracting Politicians and Literati alike.

Sir Roys description of his family roots and childhood in pre-war Romania is epic and full of fun: he brings back to life a world which has disappeared a good six decades ago under the sledgehammer of the Soviet occupation and their imported ideology.
The “Blues” are the Royal Blues of the British Army where he had a brilliant carreer as Commander of the British Forces in Berlin and Hong Kong.

The “Redgrave” have, of course, a long association with the Theatre, Television and Politics. Roy Redgrave’s father was involved in Romania’s oil industry in the famous Ploiesti fields, not far from Doftana, where the Capsa had their estate.

Centre for Romanian Studies