Ion Grigorescu

1945, Bucharest, Romania

Gorj Reportage, 1972

oil on canvas

Reportage began with 16 canvases in four vertical panels in a zigzag display.

Gorj (probably the Slav name for mountain) is a district in northwest Oltenia, where my brother,Mihai, worked as an agronomist. Photographs taken by him there inspired some of my works, others are painted from memories of my visits there.

I offer a description of them beginning with the first vertical panel on the left, starting from the top:

1/ the men are going to work in town, in industry, the women remain home, already working

2/ Snagov (probably after the Slav “snake”; a lake with snakes) intellectuals at leisure in the village

3/ unidentified image (may later be identified)

4/ young intellectuals returned home, only one of them wearing peasant dress.

the second vertical:

1/ two tractor drivers resting in the field

2/ the stable, again a formal exercise of light and shade

3/ the silos, the presence of the modern world in the traditional village landscape

4/ reaping, a pure formal exercise of pictorial relief.