Ceausescu Exhibition Opens in Bucharest

28/03/2005

Seeking to shed light on a dark period in Romania's history, a Bucharest museum is displaying dozens of paintings of the country's former communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena.

(Nine o'clock, Independent - 17/03/05; AP - 16/03/05; Wikipedia.org)

More than 160 paintings of the Ceausescu's are displayed at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest. [AFP]

An exhibition featuring dozens of paintings depicting Romania's former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, opened at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest on 16 March. Also displayed are some of the presents the couple received during their 24-year rule. "This is not a witch hunt," exhibition curator Florin Tudor told the AP. "It is a study of a dark period in Romania's history which we have to talk about."

Ceausescu came to power in March 1965, following the death of Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej, and handed out important government positions to Elena and other members of his family. The couple's rule ended with the uprising of December 1989. The Ceaucescus fled Bucharest, but were eventually arrested, brought before a summary military court and executed by firing squad.

"A society that builds its future must know its past, the real past, just as it occurred. If I -- a witness who lived in those times -- don't speak about them, then others who didn't live then will invent their own version of such facts," reads a message in a museum elevator. Visitors to the exhibition can also listen to songs about Ceausescu and recordings of speeches he delivered while in power.

While the country was experiencing severe shortages and rationing during the 1980s, television was restricted to a two-hour programme a day, largely devoted to coverage of Ceausescu's speeches or visits to places where he was met by organised crowds of cheering people.

In many of the 165 paintings included in the exhibition, the late dictator and his wife are depicted as demigods. One shows Stephen the Great, a prominent late 16th-century ruler, as half-stepping out of a painting hanging on a wall to toast the Ceausescu couple with a glass of red wine. In others, the dictator is in the company of other great figures in Romanian history, such as Mircea the Old and Michael the Brave.

One painting from the 1980s shows Ceausescu -- already in his sixties at the time -- as a handsome youth. His wife, known for her never-changing bun, is depicted with flowing hair and blue eyes, although their true colour was hazel.

All the paintings are the work of well-known Romanian artists, some of whom held important posts. They include Viorel Marginean, a former culture minister, and Zamfir Dumitrescu, president of the union of plastic artists.

The exhibition also presents an archive of periodicals, newspapers and books about the communist era. It will remain open until 22 May.