Using the Catalogue

The project of gathering and cataloguing the works started in 2014. Invaluable here was the archive initiated by the artist himself (exhibition catalogues, list of collectors, autobiographic fragments, photographs of the works and newspaper clippings going back to the 1950s). His late wife, Viky, ordered and conserved the archive when she was re-locating the studio - we cherish her life-long dedication and commitment to Bitzan’s legacy. 

The list of works is not exhaustive. We are still in the process of locating pieces, all of which will be uploaded after documentation. 

In 2017 a major retrospective exhibition was organized by the Romanian National Museum of Contemporary Art - MNAC Bucharest. About 900 works were catalogued on this occasion. We thank the museum for all its dilligence in promoting the work of Ion Bitzan and are particularly grateful to Cristina Cojocaru, art historian, whom the museum entrusted with the research of the Ion Bitzan oeuvre in view of a printed Catalogue Raisonné. Our thanks are due to museums and auction houses for allowing us to use their photographic material. We owe our utmost gratitude to private collectors, to owners of works, to art historians, art critics and not least to our friends who each and all contributed to our research.

Numbering system

Each work is given a sequential catalogue raisonné number. Editions have a number consisting of two parts; the second part shows how many editions were identified.

Dates

Definitive dates are provided only when a work was dated by the artist. Whenever a work is unsigned/undated we opted for circa dates based on the year of first mention in the Archives (for example exhibition catalogues, photographs, correspondence with art galleries, accession numbers, styles, provenance).

Titles

All main titles are in Romanian, except for the works which were publicly presented  for the first time outside Romania – here  we chose the language of the host country. If a newly presented work toured to different countries, all relevant titles are given. Alternate titles are also mentioned when the same work was published in different exhibition catalogues or photographs of the same work exist under a different title in a museum archive.

Images

Photographs are by Marcel Almăjanu, Barrie Barreto, Serioja Bocsok, J. S. Cartier (1932-2019), Nelu Colțofeanu, Florin Dragu, Trevor Good, Iosif Kiraly, Achim Kuest, Giampaulo de Luca, Eugeniu Lupu, Alexandru Mărginean, Cornelia Șoancă, Decebal Scriba, Octavian Stăcescu. Great efforts were made to provide high resolution images, but we also had to use a number of mobile telephone images taken by owners of the works. In other cases, we had to use images from whatever available sources such as exhibition catalogues, newspapers and various archives. 

Images on the home page have the following credit line: Bogdan Moțoc/1975, Peter Jacobi/1992, Ion Bitzan Foundation Archives.

Whereabouts unknown

These are works, known to exist, that could not yet be located. 

Glossary

ANIC Arhivele Naționale Istorice Centrale/National Central Historical Archives

ATSRNU Asociația Tineret și Studenți Români pentru Națiunile Unite

CAP Cooperativa Agricolă de Producție/Agricultural Cooperative

CC Comitetul Central/Central Commitee

CCES Consiliul Culturii și Educației Socialiste/Council of Socialist Culture and Education (1971-1989)

CFP Combinatul Fondului Plastic

CNSAS Consiliului Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității/Romanian National Council for the Study of the Securitate

CSCA Comitetul de Stat pentru Cultură și Artă/State Committee for Culture and Art (1967-1971)

CUASC Consiliul Uniunii Asociațiilor Studenților Comuniști

FP Fondul Plastic                            

GAC Gospodăria Agricolă Colectivă/Collective Agricultural Institution. 

GAS Gospodăria Agricolă de Stat/State Agricultural Institutions

HCM Hotărîrea Consiliului de Miniștri/Decision of Council of Ministers                         

MAE Ministerul Afacerilor Externe/Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MC Ministerul Culturii/Ministry of Arts. During time, has different names such as Ministerul Învăţământului şi Culturii; Ministerul Cultelor; Ministerul Artelor; Ministrul Cultelor şi Artelor; Ministerul Culturii Naţionale şi Cultelor; Ministerul Educaţiei Naţionale, Cultelor şi Artelor; Ministerul Culturii şi Cultelor; Ministrul Culturii, Cultelor şi patrimoniului national; Ministrul Culturii  şi patrimoniului national; Ministrul Culturii si Identitatii Nationale

MNAC Muzeul Național de Artă Contemporană/National Museum of Contemporary Art MNAC Bucharest, founded in 2001

MNAR Muzeul Național de Artă al României/National Museum of Art of Romania, founded in 1948 as Muzeul de Artă al RPR (Art Museum of Romanian People’s Republic)

ONDEA Oficiul Național pentru Organizarea Expozițiilor de Artă/National bureau for Art Documentation and Exhibition, founded in 1968 as Oficiul pentru Organizarea Expozițiilor de Artă; becomes in 1990 ONDEA

PCR Partidul Comunist Român/Romanian Communist Party (1921-1989); operated under the title PMR (Partidul Muncitoresc Român/Romanian Workers’ Party between 1948 and 1965)

PMR Partidul Muncitoresc Român/Romanian Workers’ Party

RPR Republica Populară Româna (1947-1965)/Romanian People’s Republic

RSR Republica Socialistă România (1965-1989)/Socialist Republic of Romania

SA Sindicatul Artelor Frumoase/Syndicate of Fine Arts, founded in 1921, becomes UAP in 1950

UAP(R) Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici din România/(Romanian ) Artists’ Union

UASCR  Uniunea Asociațiilor Studenților Comuniști din România

UTM Uniunea Tineretului Comunist/Communist Youth Union (1922-1989)

URSS Uniunea Republicilor Sovietice Socialiste/Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (1922-1991)

Citing

Please use this format when citing the catalogue. Ion Bitzan: A Digital Catalogue Raisonné. The Hague, Netherlands : Ion Bitzan Foundation, Cristina Cojocaru.

Printouts of artworks, exhibition and literature pages automatically include citation, URL of the entry and the date of catalogue accession.