The exhibition "The Unseen Part of the Lucia Dem. Bălăcescu Collection" has been extended until April 30, 2023.

The National Museum of Art of Romania announces the opening of the exhibition "The Unseen Part of the Lucia Dem. Bălăcescu Collection," which will take place on Sunday, October 23, 2022, at 4:00 PM at the Museum of Art Collections, located at 111 Calea Victoriei.

The opening speech will be given by the renowned journalist and TV and radio host, Andreea Esca.

"We are inaugurating this exhibition series with the involvement of personalities from fields other than the arts, in support of the idea that artworks are meant for a wide audience, not just specialists. By doing so, we aim to bring art closer to those for whom it is intended," says Călin Stegerean, the general director of the National Museum of Art of Romania.

Over a hundred works from the collection left to the museum by the artist will be exhibited, some for the first time. The majority of these works are graphic art, but there will also be a valuable selection of paintings that showcase the evolution and diversity of her artistic creation, from her first charcoal drawing in 1914 to her marine landscapes in 1976. The exhibition will be complemented by family photographs, study documents, and manuscripts.

Lucia Dem. Bălăcescu was born on January 22, 1895, in Bucharest, into an old boyar family with roots in Oltenia. She studied painting in Bucharest and Paris and was active in the artistic circles of her time, including the Society of Fine Artists, the Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Contimporanul, Arta Nouă, Criterion, the Plastic Group 1934, and the Body of Plastic Artists, where she carefully built the image of an eccentric and jovial artist. Her easily recognizable artistic style was titled the "LDB style," successfully blending avant-garde elements with an apparently naive approach inclined towards the imaginary, grotesque, or dreamlike. The artist also had a prolific career as an art critic, authoring numerous articles on the cultural life of the era and two volumes of memoirs. Despite her delicate health, she participated in most group exhibitions and regularly held solo exhibitions in the capital. She passed away in 1979.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that includes 256 pages, sized 28 x 22 cm, featuring color reproductions of all 304 donated artworks, as well as documentary materials related to her work. This volume is the third in the series of catalogs (following Alexandru Phoebus and Simion Iuca) published by the Museum of Art Collections with the purpose of promoting valuable art collections.

The exhibition is part of a series titled "The Unseen Part..." featuring selected works exclusively from the museum's storage. It is the second exhibition of its kind, following "The Unseen Part of the Alexandru Phoebus Art Collection" in 2019.

Attendance at the opening is by invitation only, with limited access for the general public, up to 50 people.

Press accreditations can be requested until Friday, October 21, 12:00 PM, at the email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Curators of the exhibition: Liliana Chiriac and Ilinca Damian

Catalog author: Ilinca Damian

Museum curator: Monica Croitoru

Conservators: Marina Iliescu, Nela Mihai, Ionuţ Sâmbeteanu

Exhibition duration: October 26, 2022, to March 26, 2023

Entrance fee: 20 lei.