Exhibitions dedicated to El Greco, Constantin Brâncuși, and masterpieces from Romanian museums are part of the program announced by the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR) for the 2026 season.
“With the program it announced, MNAR continues, expands, and deepens the direction already set with the exhibition season that started in September 2025. Among the main directions are confronting and intersecting tradition and modernity, local and global, renewing the curatorial discourse, and diversifying the offer, by including collaborations and partnerships with museums, collectors, and contemporary artists, and especially through the international amplitude and relevance of the exhibitions,” MNAR director Erwin Kessler told Agerpres.
Exhibitions at MNAR branches:
The Museum of Museums: 100 Masterpieces from Romanian Museums at MNAR: held in partnership with museums in the country, the exhibition showcases items from all over the country at MNAR (The Royal Palace) as a “map of all the masterpieces the public can see throughout the country.”
El Greco: from Byzantine Icons to International Expressionism: a collaboration with museums in Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Hungary, and Germany, the show will start from the El Greco paintings in the MNAR collections to develop “a historic fresco” starting from the 15th century to the 20th to highlight the development and takeover of El Greco’s “idiosyncratic artistic vision” in modernity.
Brâncuși. The Syndrome: another event held in partnership with museums in the country, collectors, and contemporary artists, the exhibition highlights the influence of Brâncuși on modern and contemporary Romanian art.
Reeducation through Art in Communist Prisons: this exhibition, held in collaboration with the National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), showcases a series of volumes that gather drawings by political prisoners. With the drawings, the prisoners were repudiating their previous political affiliation and embracing communist ideals under the pressure of the repressive security system.
Emilian Radu Old Maps and New Art Collection: the show, held at the Art Collections Museum, spotlights one of the most complex and diverse art and literary and visual culture collections, which spans several centuries, from early prints in Romanian to the contemporary art of the 2000s.
Selected Works from the Sorin Costina Collection: this collection of post-war Romanian art was assembled by doctor Sorin Costina between 1970 and 1990. It is seen as a testimony to culture’s refusal to conform to the political.
Exhibitions part of the Romania-Italy Cultural Year program:
Brâncuși: Origins of Infinity: this exhibition at Museo dei Fori Imperiali – Mercati di Traiano in Rome gathers items from the collections of MNAR, Craiova Art Museum, and the Brâncuși Cultural Center in Târgu-Jiu to “contextualize Brâncuși’s vision from the perspective of his education and experience with ancient classical art, but also by relating to its roots in the folk crafts of Oltenia.”
Romanian Avant-garde: Works and Networks, 1910-1960: this show, at Fondazione Sicilia in Palermo, presents a selection of representative works of the historical avant-garde in Romania, including a section of publications.
La Blouse Roumaine in Art, 1800-2000: the exhibition at Rome’s Museo delle Civilta is a concentrated version of the exhibition RomanIa – Identity representation of traditional dress in art, currently on view at MNAR.
(Photo: Multipedia2014/ Dreamstime)
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