Stach Szabłowski writes about an artist who made a great impression on the “Przekrój” editorial staff during the 2017 Venice Biennale – an impression that got under our skin, and will remain there forever. Geta Brătescu really became an international star only in her eighties. That is, she would have become somebody like that, if stardom was in her nature. But what could be done, since Brătescu always prized her freedom?
About a decade ago, the global art world first discovered the identity of the Romanian artist, and then went crazy about her; with time, their interest only grew. Meanwhile, she herself was doing what she had been doing for almost seven decades. She simply worked – tirelessly and with enthusiasm – until September 2018, when she passed away at the age of 92.
“Ms Oliver in Her Travelling Clothes”, 1980. Geta Brătescu, photographed by her husband, Mihai; photo: Mihai Brătescu, Ivan Gallery and Hauser & Wirth
I saw Brătescu’s work for the first time in the Encyclopaedic Palace – the great exhibition that Massimilian
