Chiparus: Romanian Art Deco

Lovers of Art Deco style for sure have heard plenty of times the name of Chiparus. But few of them know that Dimitri, or Demetre Chiparus, worldwide appreciated sculptor, was born in the town of Dorohoi, northeastern Romania.

Demetre Haralamb Chiparus (also known as Dumitru Chipăruş; 1886-1947) left Romania to Italy in 1909, where he attended the classes of the sculptor Raffaello Romanelli. In 1912 he traveled to Paris - where he finally settled - to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts to pursue his art at the classes of Antonin Mercie and Jean Boucher. Chiparus died in 1947 and was buried in Bagneux cemetery, south of Paris.

The first sculptures of Chiparus were created in the realistic style and were exhibited at the Salon of 1914. He was the first to employ an original combination of bronze and ivory, called chryselephantine, to great effect. Most of his renowned works were made between 1914 and 1933.

Sculptures of Chiparus represent the classical manifestation of Art Deco style in decorative bronze ivory sculpture. Collector interest in the work of Chiparus appeared in the 1970s and has flourished since the 1990s.

Source: Wikipedia

Non-pasteurized Bucharest

The Travel Eurofile of The New York Times T-Magazine has just published an interesting article signed by Alexander Lobrano under the title Back to Bucharest:

"Disappointed to find that much of central Paris now serves up the same street-level visual refrain as most American cities — Gap, Zara, Starbucks, Subway — friends visiting from Boston yearned for an urban adventure. Where could they go for a long weekend that hadn’t yet been subjected to the centrifuge of globalization? 'Bucharest,' I replied, and they laughed out loud. 'Bucharest!? Is there anything to see there? And what about the hotels and the food?'

'Trust me,' I told them, and wasn’t surprised when they returned three days later raving about the delicious strangeness of Europe’s sixth largest city (if you don’t count Istanbul and leave out Russia), which is a three-hour flight from most western European capitals. Vying for the title with Belgrade and Sofia, Bucharest is one of the last major European cities that hasn’t been pasteurized by gentrification or lost its soul to mass tourism. It’s an odd but lively mutt of a city — one that’s clearly seen better days but where something is also suddenly stirring. The locals love to have a good time, and the Romanian economy is chugging along pretty nicely."

Read the whole article here.