FROM JULY 29th 2020
THEMATIC EXHIBITION AT SUȚU PALACE
“THE ANASTASE SIMU MUSEUM AND THE BUCHAREST MUNICIPALITY MUSEUM PINACOTHEQUE”
The exhibition will open at Suțu Palace on July 29th 2020.
The Bucharest Municipality Museum keeps in the archive of its pinacotheque a rich correspondence from the Anastase Simu Collection. In an effort to retrieve information related to the history of this collection, representative for the phenomenon of collecting in the first part of the twentieth century, we aim to organize an exhibition presenting both original works of art, as well as documents, photographs and other archival materials.
The Simu Museum functioned, from 1910 until 1927, as a private institution in the temple-shaped building situated on Mercur str., until it was donated to the state. The Simu Museum has held paintings, sculptures, and works of graphic and decorative arts, which were presented in five sections.
On May 21, 1937, a new section of the museum was inaugurated in the former home of the owners, who received the title Casa Simu-Museum, according to the will of the collector, reproduced by Marius Bunescu (a long time director of the museum), in Acts of the Anastase Simu Foundation: ”Initially, only works of art from the Romanian and French school of the 19th century were exposed on the picture rails of the new art place that enriched the capital.” The Simu Museum represented an important connection of the Romanian artistic and academic environment with the western world.
Moreover, the Anastase Simu Museum and the Bucharest Municipality Museum Pinacotheque had a common life for a while: after being housed in the Admiral Vasile Urseanu House, the Pinacotheque collection moved to the Casa-Simu-Museum. Although the two institutions had initially separate titles, at the end of the 1960s the two collections merged into “The Anastase Simu Bucharest Municipaly Museum of Art”.
Currently, an important part of the Simu collection is presented at the Museum of Art Collections, but the Bucharest Municipality Museum Pinacotheque also keeps some representative works.
Therefore, the Art Section of the Bucharest Municipality Museum aims to continue the efforts to recover the information regarding the Simu Collection and exhibits at the Suțu Palace some of the works originating from the Simu Museum. In 2019, the Bucharest Municipality Museum, the National Art Museum of Romania and the National Archives were partners within the project Recreation in virtual reality of the Simu Museum and the remembrance of other victims of the demolitions carried out in Bucharest during the communist period; this collaboration will continue during this exhibition.
Visitors will discover the history of a museum demolished by the communist regime and the story of the masterpieces it has held. In addition, during the exhibition we will organize a series of conferences in which materials from the Simu archive of Bucharest Municipality Museum Pinacotheque will be presented.
Angelica Iacob, Head of the Arts Department
Ana Maria Măciucă, Museographer