Eugen Taru
Encyclopedia
Eugen Taru was a Romania
n graphic artist, best known for his work in the political cartoon
, caricature
, comic strip
and book illustration
genres. Active throughout the communist period
and first acknowledged as one among the young socialist realists
promoted by the regime, Taru primarily associated with satirical
magazines such as Urzica.
Recognized early on for his controversial involvement with the propaganda
apparatus, he later focused on his work for children, and became one of the noted visual artists employed by the Editura Ion Creangă
publishing house. Also known as art collectors, he and his wife Josefina donated one of the principal estates exhibited by the Museum of Art Collections
. His own works are featured in several Romanian museums.
, Taru first became noted as an artist in the years after World War II
, when he affiliated with the communists
and socialist realists who received official endorsement from the Romanian Communist Party
. Art critic Pavel Şuşară cited his name among young artists who needed affirmation and found it through political compromise, the "hardcore" group "who illustrated, through their attitudes, their iconography and implicit philosophy, the benchmarks, the aspirations and the utopia
s of a system that had an imperative need for artists to promote its doctrine and provide it with symbolic credentials."
In the context of the Cold War
, Taru became especially known for stereotypical
political cartoons, such as those targeting Wall Street
business or wealthy peasants known as chiaburi (the equivalent of kulak
s). The latter were especially controversial, since they coincided with the forced collectivization
and the murderous campaign targeting the rural elites. One of Taru's watercolors, called Demascarea chiaburului ("Unmasking the Chiabur"), shows a proletarian, a communized peasant and a militiaman
publicly shaming the rich peasant for not handing in his production quota
(which, in reality, was set to a preferential and debilitating level). After the Tito–Stalin split, when Soviet
-aligned Romania pursued a propaganda war on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, the artist was enlisted to produce giant panels showing Josip Broz Tito
as a butcher holding a bloody axe (in the line of posters deeming him a "butcher of the Yugoslav peoples").
During the 1950s, Taru also created a regularly published comic strip, built around and named after its main character, the dwarf Barbăcot. The decade coincided with a slump in the history of Romanian comics: while exercising ideological control over the comic strip scene, the authorities reputedly preferred to invest in animation
, viewed as a more effective means of spreading propaganda. In this context, Taru's survived as one of the comic strips most familiar to the general public during communism (alongside those created by Ion Deak, Pompiliu Dumitrescu, Puiu Manu, Vintilă Mihăescu, Dumitru Negrea, Ion Popescu-Gopo
and Lívia Rusz
).
Taru was still working at Urzica after 1965, when the regime changed cultural direction under new leader Nicolae Ceauşescu
. According to artist Mihai Pînzaru-Pim, who began working for the magazine in 1969, Taru, alongside Cik Damadian and actor Horaţiu Mălăele, discretely stood against the policies enforced by Ceauşescu, defined by him as "the stupid attempt to induce ideology on a wise people". Pînzaru-Pim contends that, as a result, Urzica was among the publications most likely to bypass communist censorship
with şopârle (lit. "lizards", or pieces subtly criticizing the regime in a seemingly innocent context). Together, Taru and Pînzaru-Pim were also the first Romanian cartoonists to receive international awards.
An area where Taru's contribution has traditionally been seen as superlative was that of book illustration. According to his entry at the National Museum of Art
, Taru was one of the local artists "who consolidated the prestige of book illustration as an autonomous genre, enriching the concept of 'illustration' with more complex functions than the mere visualization of a literary sequence or a poetic state." Recalling her introduction to the genre as a child, graphic artist Arina Stoenescu lists Taru, alongside Rusz and Val Munteanu, as one of three most memorable artists to have been associated with the state-run children's book publisher Editura Ion Creangă
. Among the noted drawings produced by Taru in this area were his 14 pieces for a 1959 edition of Childhood Memories
by the 19th century Romanian literature
classic Ion Creangă
, and his illustrations for a 1986 translation of Miguel de Cervantes
' Don Quixote (the second Romanian edition of the book to feature original illustrations, after the 1976 version by Val Munteanu).
(Ion Andreescu
, Alexandru Ciucurencu
, Dumitru Ghiaţă
, Lucian Grigorescu
, Iosif Iser
, Ştefan Luchian
, Theodor Pallady
, Gheorghe Petraşcu
, Nicolae Tonitza
, Francisc Şirato
) and local painters in whom Taru invested (Ştefan Constantinescu
, Ion Pacea), alongside old samples of Romanian
and Russian icons
. Other parts of the collection include Oriental art
(Chinese and Japanese porcelain, cloisonné
-decorated bronze vessels, a painting in the style of Hanabusa Itchō
), as well as European decorative items (such as 18th century French furniture
).
Eugen Taru's drawings for Childhood Memories are preserved by the Creangă Memorial House in Târgu Neamţ
, as an integral part of the permanent exhibit. Demascarea chiaburului is held at the Bánffy Palace Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca
.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n graphic artist, best known for his work in the political cartoon
Editorial cartoon
An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities....
, caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
, comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
and book illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
genres. Active throughout the communist period
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
and first acknowledged as one among the young socialist realists
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
promoted by the regime, Taru primarily associated with satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
magazines such as Urzica.
Recognized early on for his controversial involvement with the propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
apparatus, he later focused on his work for children, and became one of the noted visual artists employed by the Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă was a publishing house based in Bucharest, Romania. Founded as a state-run company under communist rule and named after the 19th century writer Ion Creangă, it ranked high among Romanian publishers of children's literature, fantasy literature and science fiction...
publishing house. Also known as art collectors, he and his wife Josefina donated one of the principal estates exhibited by the Museum of Art Collections
Museum of Art Collections
The Museum of Art Collections is a branch of the National Museum of Art of Romania and is situated in Bucharest. It contains 44 collections donated to the Romanian State beginning with 1927 by the families of: Hurmuz Aznavorian, Dumitru and Maria Ştefănescu, Josefina and Eugen Taru, Emanoil Romulus...
. His own works are featured in several Romanian museums.
Biography
A graduate of the Carol I High School in CraiovaCraiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
, Taru first became noted as an artist in the years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when he affiliated with the communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and socialist realists who received official endorsement from the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
. Art critic Pavel Şuşară cited his name among young artists who needed affirmation and found it through political compromise, the "hardcore" group "who illustrated, through their attitudes, their iconography and implicit philosophy, the benchmarks, the aspirations and the utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
s of a system that had an imperative need for artists to promote its doctrine and provide it with symbolic credentials."
In the context of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Taru became especially known for stereotypical
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
political cartoons, such as those targeting Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
business or wealthy peasants known as chiaburi (the equivalent of kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
s). The latter were especially controversial, since they coincided with the forced collectivization
Collectivization in Romania
The collectivization of agriculture in Romania took place in the early years of the Communist regime. The initiative sought to bring about a thorough transformation in the property regime and organisation of labour in agriculture...
and the murderous campaign targeting the rural elites. One of Taru's watercolors, called Demascarea chiaburului ("Unmasking the Chiabur"), shows a proletarian, a communized peasant and a militiaman
Militsiya
Militsiya or militia is used as an official name of the civilian police in several former communist states, despite its original military connotation...
publicly shaming the rich peasant for not handing in his production quota
Production quota
A production quota is a goal for the production of a good. It is typically set by a government or an organization, and can be applied to an individual worker, firm, industry or country. Quotas can be set high to encourage production, or can be used to limit production to control the supply of goods...
(which, in reality, was set to a preferential and debilitating level). After the Tito–Stalin split, when Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-aligned Romania pursued a propaganda war on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, the artist was enlisted to produce giant panels showing Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
as a butcher holding a bloody axe (in the line of posters deeming him a "butcher of the Yugoslav peoples").
During the 1950s, Taru also created a regularly published comic strip, built around and named after its main character, the dwarf Barbăcot. The decade coincided with a slump in the history of Romanian comics: while exercising ideological control over the comic strip scene, the authorities reputedly preferred to invest in animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, viewed as a more effective means of spreading propaganda. In this context, Taru's survived as one of the comic strips most familiar to the general public during communism (alongside those created by Ion Deak, Pompiliu Dumitrescu, Puiu Manu, Vintilă Mihăescu, Dumitru Negrea, Ion Popescu-Gopo
Ion Popescu-Gopo
Ion Popescu-Gopo was a Romanian graphic artist and animator, but also writer, movie director and actor born in Bucharest, Romania. He was a prominent personality in the Romanian cinematography and the founder of the modern Romanian cartoon school. He was, together with Liviu Ciulei and Mirel...
and Lívia Rusz
Lívia Rusz
Lívia or Livia Rusz is a Romanian and Hungarian graphic artist, best known for her work in illustration, comic strip and comic book genres...
).
Taru was still working at Urzica after 1965, when the regime changed cultural direction under new leader Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
. According to artist Mihai Pînzaru-Pim, who began working for the magazine in 1969, Taru, alongside Cik Damadian and actor Horaţiu Mălăele, discretely stood against the policies enforced by Ceauşescu, defined by him as "the stupid attempt to induce ideology on a wise people". Pînzaru-Pim contends that, as a result, Urzica was among the publications most likely to bypass communist censorship
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
with şopârle (lit. "lizards", or pieces subtly criticizing the regime in a seemingly innocent context). Together, Taru and Pînzaru-Pim were also the first Romanian cartoonists to receive international awards.
An area where Taru's contribution has traditionally been seen as superlative was that of book illustration. According to his entry at the National Museum of Art
National Museum of Art of Romania
The National Museum of Art of Romania is located in the former royal palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest, Romania, completed in 1937...
, Taru was one of the local artists "who consolidated the prestige of book illustration as an autonomous genre, enriching the concept of 'illustration' with more complex functions than the mere visualization of a literary sequence or a poetic state." Recalling her introduction to the genre as a child, graphic artist Arina Stoenescu lists Taru, alongside Rusz and Val Munteanu, as one of three most memorable artists to have been associated with the state-run children's book publisher Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă was a publishing house based in Bucharest, Romania. Founded as a state-run company under communist rule and named after the 19th century writer Ion Creangă, it ranked high among Romanian publishers of children's literature, fantasy literature and science fiction...
. Among the noted drawings produced by Taru in this area were his 14 pieces for a 1959 edition of Childhood Memories
Childhood Memories (Creangă)
Childhood Memories is one of the main literary contributions of Romanian author Ion Creangă...
by the 19th century Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
classic Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
, and his illustrations for a 1986 translation of Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
' Don Quixote (the second Romanian edition of the book to feature original illustrations, after the 1976 version by Val Munteanu).
Estate
Taru and his wife Josefina gathered a sizable collection of artistic works, which, together with some of Taru's own creations, was donated to the Museum of Art Collections. This estate includes the works of Romanian mastersArt of Romania
Art of Romania encompasses the artists and artistic movements in Romania.-Romanian contemporary and modern artists:* Almaşan Virgil* Adela Andea* George Apostu* Corneliu Baba* Calin Baban* Sabin Bălaşa* Horia Bernea* Traian Brădean...
(Ion Andreescu
Ion Andreescu
-Biography:He was born in Bucharest into a merchant's family. In 1869 he entered Theodor Aman's Fine Arts School.By 1872 he was an instructor of drawing and calligraphy at the Bishop's School in Buzău. In 1873 he left the Bishop's School for the Tudor Vladimirescu Communal Secondary School, also...
, Alexandru Ciucurencu
Alexandru Ciucurencu
Alexandru Ciucurencu was a Romanian Post-Impressionist painter.A collection of Ciucurencu's paintings can be seen in Dr. Frasier Crane's apartment in the sitom Frasier, in the episode "The Guilt Trippers" .-External links:**...
, Dumitru Ghiaţă
Dumitru Ghiata
Dumitru Ghiaţă was a Romanian landscape painter. He painted still lives with flowers, compositions, in a simple, direct, sober coloured style, in a synthetic drawing recalling folk traditions .-External links:*...
, Lucian Grigorescu
Lucian Grigorescu
Lucian Grigorescu was a Romanian post-impressionist painter.In 1948, he was elected to the Romanian Academy. -External links:*...
, Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser was a Romanian painter and graphic artist.Born to a Jewish family, he was initially inspired by Expressionism, creating drawings with thick, unmodulated, lines and steep angles...
, Ştefan Luchian
Stefan Luchian
Ștefan Luchian or Lukian was a Romanian painter, famous for his landscapes and still life works.-Early life:He was born in Ștefănești, a village of Botoșani County, as the son of Major Dumitru Luchian and of Elena Chiriacescu. The Luchian family moved to Bucharest in 1873 and his mother desired...
, Theodor Pallady
Theodor Pallady
Theodor Pallady was a Romanian painter.-Biography:Pallady was born in Iaşi, but at a young age, his family moved to Dresden, where he studied engineering at the Dresden University of Technology between 1887 and 1889. At the same time, he studied art with Erwin Oehme, who, recognising his artistic...
, Gheorghe Petraşcu
Gheorghe Petrascu
Gheorghe Petraşcu was a Romanian painter. He won numerous prizes throughout his lifetime and had his paintings exhibited posthumously at the Paris International Exhibition and the Venice Biennale. He was the brother of N. Petraşcu, a literary critic and novelist.-External links:**...
, Nicolae Tonitza
Nicolae Tonitza
Nicolae Tonitza was a Romanian painter, engraver, lithographer, journalist and art critic. Drawing inspiration from Post-impressionism and Expressionism, he had a major role in introducing modernist guidelines to local art.-Biography:...
, Francisc Şirato
Francisc Sirato
Francisc Şirato was a Romanian painter, graphic artist, art critic, and designer.-External links:*...
) and local painters in whom Taru invested (Ştefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu
Ştefan Constantinescu, born 1968, is a visual artist and film director living and working in Stockholm and Bucharest. He works with various mediums including film, artist books and paintings approaching the political through introspection to challenge notions of identity, while working in and with...
, Ion Pacea), alongside old samples of Romanian
Romanian icons
In the Romanian Orthodox Church, icons serve much the same purpose as they do in other Eastern Orthodox traditions. The art of painting them has survived communism and today there are many active icon painters in Romania....
and Russian icons
Russian icons
The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 988 AD. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by Byzantine art, led from the capital in Constantinople...
. Other parts of the collection include Oriental art
Eastern art history
The history of Eastern art includes a vast range of influences from various cultures and religions. Developments in Eastern art historically parallel those in Western art, in general a few centuries earlier...
(Chinese and Japanese porcelain, cloisonné
Cloisonné
Cloisonné is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects, in recent centuries using vitreous enamel, and in older periods also inlays of cut gemstones, glass, and other materials. The resulting objects can also be called cloisonné...
-decorated bronze vessels, a painting in the style of Hanabusa Itchō
Hanabusa Itcho
was a Japanese painter, calligrapher, and haiku poet. He originally trained in the Kanō style, under Kanō Yasunobu, but ultimately rejected that style and became a literati . He was also known as Hishikawa Waō and by a number of other art-names....
), as well as European decorative items (such as 18th century French furniture
French furniture
French furniture comprises both the most sophisticated furniture made in Paris for king and court, aristocrats and rich upper bourgeoisie, on the one hand, and French provincial furniture made in the provincial cities and towns many of which, like Lyon and Liège, retained cultural identities...
).
Eugen Taru's drawings for Childhood Memories are preserved by the Creangă Memorial House in Târgu Neamţ
Târgu Neamt
Târgu Neamţ is a town in Neamţ County, Romania, on the Neamţ River. It had, , a population of 20,496. Three villages are administered by the town: Blebea, Humuleşti and Humuleştii Noi.- History :...
, as an integral part of the permanent exhibit. Demascarea chiaburului is held at the Bánffy Palace Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
.