Two great names in Romanian art, Eugenia Iftodi and Ion Tzuculescu, have formed a dynamic creative couple as a pair of artists who will inspire the public in Bucharest to discover the secrets of art and collecting in November.

The auction of the Bucharest collection offers the public for the first time a collection from the workshop of Yevgenia Iftodi, as well as some personal objects of popular art collected by the artist. Deep feelings connect her with Ion Tzuculescu, which go beyond simple friendship and lead to an inseparable union of the two in life and in art. Evgenia Iftodi, who is considered “the only student of Tukulescu”, is recognized as a successful artist with personal and collective exhibitions both in the country and abroad.

Iftodi participates in the auction on Thursday, November 16, with works that vividly and colorfully reflect Romanian village life, its customs and symbolic characters. In her travels, the artist immortalized sunny plains, traditional interiors, farm animals and rural labor, fairs and mourning, tender portraits and folk costumes, each of which represents a moment captured forever on canvas or paper. One of the works at the auction even represents the intimacy of the family home in a watercolor of the interior titled “Grandma’s Home.” Its starting price at the auction is only 150 euros.

Ion Tzuculescu is the one who led his way to improve and master the secrets of oil painting. As one of the most popular Romanian artists, whose works are valued at tens and hundreds of thousands of euros, this auction makes Cuculescu a bright personality not only as an artist, but also as a guide and source of inspiration. A painting by master Shuculescu that was recently put up for auction is a portrait of his daughter, made in the 1950s. The work sold for €28,000, exceeding the house’s original estimate of €12,000-18,000.

Unexpected cases of the auction: “Woman in Black”, “Green Dress” and “Reading”

As part of the selection of Iftodi’s workshop, an impressive series of portraits of the artist, personal reinterpretations of the famous cubist figures of Picasso’s muses, were put up for auction. The bodies of the characters are described, as in Picasso’s great work, from several angles, using the specific techniques of Cubism, the movement that made Picasso famous throughout the world.

Gathering in Iftod

The phenomenon of collecting often occurs in the lives of great artists who, with a skillful eye of complete aesthetic knowledge, manage to create real art collections. This also applies to the artist Yevhenia Iftodi, who collects folk art objects (like her mentor – Tzuculescu), presented at next week’s auction. The public has the opportunity to meet for the first time the integrated vision of the artist-collector, and the selection is a small but sincere and direct foray into the life and personality of a first-class artist who was first and foremost an explorer of the life of the village and the Romanian plains, in all regions of the country. Glazed icons made by artists from Fegerash, woolen carpets from Olten and ceramic vessels are put up for auction – proof of the artist’s love for her native plains. One of the icons that can be sold at auction is the icon of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, made at the end of the 19th century by the artist Ana Deji.

All auction lots are available for viewing online. It is worth noting that the lowest starting price is only 50 euros, which allows collectors and lovers of art and history to invest wisely in building their own collection. At the same time, the exhibition can be physically visited in the Česianu-Rakovica Palace, free of charge and without prior appointment, until November 16.

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