Romania

Mircea Pinte Collection in Cluj: a short (re)view on the exhibition's catalogue

Simona Vilau

Simona Vilau and Valentina Iancu: Art Collecting in Romania

As Calin Stegerean (director of Cluj-Napoca Museum of Art) thoroughly explains in his introductory text from the catalogue, published with the occasion of Mircea Pinte Collection's exhibition in 2010, this collection comprises artworks from the most successful Romanian artists of The School of Cluj, such as Adrian Ghenie (b. 1977), Victor Man (b. 1974), Mircea Cantor (b. 1977), Ciprian Muresan, and many more. The very important thing about these artists is that some of them were also collected by famous international art collectors, such as François Pinault, Susan & Michael Hort, or Blake Byrne.

Almost all the young artists featured in this collection are represented by Plan B gallery, who opened in 2005, in Cluj-Napoca, and in 2008, in Berlin.

'The Mircea Pinte Collection was initiated in Cluj in 2004 and focuses on Romanian art of the last 50 years. It now comprises approximately 200 works and is distinguished by substantial sections of works by Paul Neagu, Ion Grigorescu, Horia Bernea, as well as by the consistency with which it has integrated Cluj artists of the 2000 generation. The Museum of Art Cluj-Napoca has initiated a partnership with collector Mircea Pinte to make the collection accessible to its public, via a series of thematic exhibitions, over the next few years.'

This first exhibition of the collection gathers artworks by Marius Bercea (b. 1979), Mircea Cantor, Alexandra Croitoru (b. 1975), Adrian Ghenie, Cantemir Hausi (b. 1976), Istvan Laszlo (b. 1981), Victor Man, Ciprian Muresan, Vlad Nanca (b. 1979), Cristi Pogacean (b. 1980), Victor Racatau (b. 1967), Cristian Rusu (b. 1972), Serban Savu (b. 1978), Mircea Suciu (b. 1978), Supernova (Istvan Laszlo, Ciprian Muresan, Cristi Pogacean), Gabriela Vanga (b. 1977). In 2012, parts of this collection were showed in The Netherlands, at Collectors House.