41. Interior [a doua jumătate a anilor '30]

With roots in the family of linguist Jacques Byck, Mina Byck-Wepper will establish herself as one of the most prolific female figures of interwar Romanian art. She carries out her artistic studies at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest under the guidance of another prodigious figure in local painting: Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, from whom she will adopt a penchant for symbols. Wepper is undoubtedly one of her most promising students. She is also mentored by Ipolit Strâmbu, who often took classes dedicated to students within the Bucharest School. The symbolism and decorativism proposed by Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck nationally will be deepened within the Royal Academy of Art in the capital of Bavaria under the guidance of Professor Franz von Stuck. The moment of meeting with German art will coincide, in Mina Byck-Wepper’s creative economy, with the discovery of interest in her floral panels. In 1912 she opens her first personal exhibition in Bucharest, managing to organize, throughout her career, no fewer than eight such events, which attracted both public attention and critics. Byck-Wepper thus becomes one of the collectors' favorite artists of the time. Although she carries out her studies under the auspices of different currents proposed by her masters, she will rather assume a local modernism and a traditional-realist style. She becomes active in the Youth Art Association or the Official Salon, and in 1937 she will also participate in the International Exhibition in Paris. The drawing done directly from nature and the color added in perfect accordance with the observation of reality will establish Mina Byck as one of the leading figures of domestic interwar artistic life. Daffodils, chrysanthemums, or roses will often appear in her work and will reveal the artist's preferences for white, yellow, red, or pink hues. Still artists will therefore gain the rank of pictorial-photographic representations of the artist's private life, by entering her familiar universe and describing corners of her home. The elegant furniture, made up of the makeup table and red armchairs; the blanket left on the furniture or the books left on the table; the pictures on the walls or the disordered carpet express the intimate atmosphere of the space where the artist works. The interiors described by Mina Byck-Wepper propose an incursion through both the personal space of the author and her imagination.

References

OCTAVIAN, Tudor, "Forgotten Romanian Painters", Noi Media Print Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003. BADEA-PĂUN, Gabriel, "Romanian Painters in France", Noi Media Print Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012.

Dimensions

width 60 cm, height 50 cm

Description

ulei pe carton, signed bottom left, in brown, "MinaByckWepper"

Dating

a doua jumătate a anilor '30

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