Roses 1939

Dumitru Ghiatza created this oil painting, titled 'Roses', but the exact date remains unknown. Ghiatza painted in Romania, a country with a complicated political relationship to the West during the 20th Century. His artistic education in Bucharest was followed by time in Paris, a common path for artists of his generation, and the influence of Impressionism can be seen in his characteristic style. During the interwar period, Romanian art was characterized by a tension between native traditions and cosmopolitan modernism. We can see something of both in ‘Roses’. The subject is traditional, but the handling of paint reflects the artist’s awareness of developments in Western Europe. The painting may therefore be interpreted as a negotiation between local and global artistic identities. To understand this work, you might research Romanian art institutions of the period. You could also examine publications from the interwar period to explore the contemporary debates about national identity and artistic expression. The meaning of art is often tied to its specific social and institutional contexts.