3 paintings by Adrian Ghenie, in the upcoming contemporary art auction, in Bucharest

Three works by Adrian Ghenie are put up for auction, two of which date from the beginning of his artistic career, when he did not even suspect that he would break record after record in international auctions – let’s remember that in December 2022 one of his works was purchased for 7,000,000 of euros in an event that took place in Hong Kong. These and a “visit” behind the scenes of Magdalena Rădulescu’s workshop in Nice are presented at the Artmark Galleries this month. The final preparations have begun for the next Contemporary Art Auction, which will take place on April 18 and presents you with over 180 lots.

Two of the works signed by Adrian Ghenie were made by the artist in the early 2000s: “Wing” and “Vestigiile memoriei/Remnants of Memory“, which have the highest starting prices in the auction: 20,000 and 30,000 euros, respectively. The third, titled “Stéphane Mallarmé“, the offset of a collage inspired by the well-known French symbolist poet, was made in the midst of the pandemic, in 2020, and has a starting price of only 1,000 euros.

Also in the same auction on April 18, contemporary art collectors will encounter an impressive collection of 28 works made by Magdalena Rădulescu (1902-1983) after her exile in France. A painter whose art and life impressed in equal measure, Magdalena Rădulescu worked in her last years mainly in Nice, where she retired after 1946, to fulfill her childhood dream spent in Constanța, that of being as close as possible of the sea. “She was a total nonconformist, he was always an apparition. She lived from art and for art,” said the late Doina Păuleanu, in the fall of 2020, at the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Constanța Art Museum.

In the more than five decades of activity, Magdalena Rădulescu created around 2,000 works, of which more than 800 paintings are in museums and public collections. Although he came quite rarely to Romania, he made portraits for some of the most prominent cultural figures of the time, such as Cella Serghi, Lucian Blaga, Victor Eftimiu, Zaharia Stancu.

The 28 works by Magdalena Rădulescu present in the Artmark Contemporary Art Auction – of which we list only a few here: “The Great Cavalcade” and “Dance of the Gags” – were made in the artist’s workshop in Nice and were also made thanks to the support received by her from an Italian family she had become very close to. The owner of the collection told us the story: “All these works are the fruit of a deep friendship between the artist and the Betti family, my uncle being the Italian ambassador in Nice since the 70s. I also met her personally in ’76. I remember it was a special meeting, I remember her workshop inside a hotel. It was full of sails”.

The exhibition with all these works opened today and can be visited daily, from Monday to Sunday, between 10.00 and 20.00, at Cesianu-Racoviță Palace in 5 C.A. Rosetti street, with free entry.