A Contemporary of Brancusi: Milita Petrascu

You have learned a lot about Constantin Brancusi, over the years, from our shows as well as from our web site and social media profiles. Milita Petrascu, a fine artist, sculptor and painter, and a member of the Romanian avant-garde movement of the interwar years (represented by groups like “Contimporanul,” “Grupul Nostru,” “Criterion”) was born in late 1892 in Chisinau, currently the capital of the Republic of Moldova. She worked in Munich under the guidance of avant-garde maestros Kandinsky and von Jawlensky, and then in Paris, with famous artists like Matisse and Bourdelle. There she met Constantin Brancusi, in whose Parisian workshop she worked starting in 1919. Brancusi was her guide to modern sculpture, and was a major influence on Milita Petrascu’s work. She died in 1976, in Bucharest.

Eugen Cojocariu, 16.06.2014, 10:16

After the avant-garde stage, Milita Petrascu was known especially as an accomplished portraitist. She made the mosaic for a well-known fountain in Bucharest, “Miorita Fountain,” displayed her works together with the great Romanian avant-garde artist Marcel Iancu, but she owes her notable place in Romanian art history especially to her portraits and busts of Romanian celebrities: actresses Marioara Voiculescu and Elvira Godeanu, poets Octavian Goga, George Bacovia and Ion Barbu, her mentor Constantin Brancusi, prose writers Liviu Rebreanu and Mihail Sadoveanu, the great musician George Enescu, actor Constantin I. Nottara, and so on. In 1942 Milita Petrascu received the Romanian Academy Award and in 1972 the lifetime achievement Award of the Romanian Fine Arts Union.

We invite you to listen to RRI’s shows, to follow our posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and on rri.ro, and to answer a few questions in writing, and you can win. The quiz is open until July 15, 2014, so this will be a shorter and denser competition than our usual ones.

The Grand Prize will be a 7-day (6-night) full-board stay for one RRI listener, in the last half of August 2014, in Gorj County, the home place of sculpture giant Brancusi. The winner will have a chance to see Brancusi’s works in Targu Jiu, the artist’s home, as well as a variety of other cultural, tourist and historical attractions in the area.

The competition is organized jointly with the “Constantin Brancusi” Municipal Culture Centre in Targu Jiu and other local partners. And, to encourage as many of you as possible to take part in this quiz, the organizer will also cover the cost of your airplane ticket to Bucharest!

As usual, the winner will have to complete the procedures and cover the costs of their Romanian visa, if necessary. For the other winners, our partners, the “Constantin Brancusi” Municipal Culture Centre in Targu Jiu in particular, have other interesting items to offer as prizes.

And now, here are the questions:

Where was Milita Petrascu born? When did Milita Petrascu start working in Brancusi’s workshop in Paris? What artistic movement in Romania did Milita Petrascu join in the 1920s? What famous works by Constantin Brancusi can be seen in Targu Jiu?

Tell us what prompted you to take part in this competition and, more importantly, why you listen to RRI or follow our online programmes?

Our coordinates are unchanged: Radio Romania International, 60-64 Gral Berthelot Street, sector 1, Bucharest, PO Box 111, postal code 010165, fax 00.40.21.319.05.62, email engl@rri.ro. We are waiting for your answers until July 15, postage date. The Grand Prize winner will be announced shortly after the closing of the quiz. Good luck!