Art Safari New Museum opened its second exhibition season of the year on Thursday at Amzei 13. Until 20 December, art lovers can discover, among other things, an exhibition about Brancusi and the muses who influenced his work, curated by Doina Lemny, as well as an exploration of the Pop Art movement, curated by Alexandre Eram, featuring icons of the movement from Warhol to Basquiat.

The new season also offers an exhibition about war and peace, created by Dragos Varsandan - two sides of the same history - as well as important works by Grigorescu, Aman and Luchian, along with photographs by Cristian Mungiu taken while researching 'Fjord,' the film that has a chance of bringing Romania its first Oscar, as well as a number of other temporary exhibitions.

'We are opening the 19th edition of Art Safari, this time with an absolutely impressive line-up. I was actually speaking to Doina Lemny last night and telling her that 19 times I have said that the exhibition is phenomenal, and I realised that Art Safari exhibitions are phenomenal because Romanian art has so much to offer and international art has so much to offer that this extraordinary quality will never end,' Ioana Ciocan, Managing Partner of Art Safari New Museum, said at a press conference marking the opening of the new Art Safari New Museum season.

The full exhibition programme for Season 19 includes:

- Museum Pavilion: 'Brancusi and His Muses,' curated by Doina Lemny (18 September - 20 December)

The largest exhibition dedicated to the artist and his muses to be organised in Romania during Brancusi Year brings together more than 200 works, including 100 by Brancusi - films, photographs, letters and drawings never before exhibited in Romania - as well as three exceptional sculptures that tell the story of the relationship between the artist and the women who marked one of the most fertile periods of his creative life.

The muses featured include Baroness Renee Irana Frachon, the model for 'Sleeping Muse,' Margit Pogany, the model for 'Miss Pogany,' Lizica and Irina Codreanu, artist and writer Nancy Cunard, poet Mina Loy, dancers Marthe Lebherz, Florence Meyer and Marina Saliapin, as well as the artist's final partner, British pianist Vera Moore.

'The idea behind the exhibition is to show Brancusi's relationship with women and to see Brancusi differently from the way he has been portrayed without actually knowing the facts. (...) Brancusi loved women, he adored and respected them. Brancusi was incredibly modest. Not all the women who crossed his threshold became Brancusi's models. The very few women he loved are not even represented in a bust. So this is about a human relationship in which we discover Brancusi - the man - whom we cannot separate from Brancusi - the creator. They lived together. They are two personalities who lived together - the creator and the man,' Doina Lemny said.

The ensemble is complemented by correspondence, posters, personal documents and objects that belonged to these women, including dresses and jewellery, some of them from important collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Nouveau Musee National de Monaco.

For the first time anywhere in the world, an unprecedented collection of 40 photographs by Brancusi from the collection of the University of Arts in Cluj is being presented on this occasion. The university is celebrating 100 years since its establishment. It is the most valuable collection after the one held by the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Regarding this component of the exhibition, Professor Florin Stefan, pHD., Rector of the University of Art and Design in Cluj, said that the photographs had been assessed by Doina Lemny. Following their presentation in Bucharest, the photographs will be shown to the public in Cluj in a building in Central Park that is currently undergoing rehabilitation.

- International Pavilion: 'Pop Art. The World in Colour' (18 September - 20 December)

From Andy Warhol's 'Factory' to Roy Lichtenstein's comic strips and the powerful voices of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, the exhibition, curated by Alexandre Eram, traces six decades of Pop art and visual culture, from post-war America to its global echoes today. A special place in the exhibition is given to the story of Romanian-born gallerist Ileana Sonnabend, a key figure in promoting 20th-century American art.

The exhibition is presented as part of the Freedom 250 programme organised by the United States Embassy in Bucharest.

- Historical Pavilion: 'War and Peace' (18 September - 20 December)

Curated by Dragos Varsandan, the exhibition, organised in partnership with the National History Museum of Romania, offers a visual essay on how violence has been imbued with meaning and glory throughout the centuries, while peace has always remained a fragile and fleeting state. The journey begins with Trajan's Column and reaches, through the horrors of the Great War and the class struggle depicted in communist propaganda, the way Romanian art has recorded the permanent state of conflict and its rare exception, peace.

'It took about a year to put the whole thing together. I believe this is the kind of exhibition that must have a message, and the message must be about how fragile and how overlooked peace is, both in the history of art and in general, and about how much it is within our power to make it more present and just as important. Because peace does not represent the absence of war. It is a primordial state that is just as important and equal to that of war, and we must fight for it. If there is one victory we must achieve, it is to perpetuate this state of peace,' Dragos Varsandan said at the press conference.

- Temporary Exhibitions Pavilion: 'Cristian Mungiu. Fjord, Photographs' (18 September - 1 November)

Beyond the big screen, Cristian Mungiu's world is revealed through a series of photographs taken while researching the film 'Fjord,' which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The photographs capture moments of reflection and landscapes that fascinated the director and accompanied his creative process, forming a personal and intimate film made up of glances, encounters and memories.

The exhibition invites the public to discover the behind-the-scenes of a creative process and to see the world through the eyes of someone who has made history in Romanian cinema.

'This exhibition mainly brings together photographs I took during the two years I spent researching 'Fjord' in Norway. There are also a few photographs taken during filming, on set, but they are not photographs of well-known actors in character. They are simply part of my parallel life, in which I try to observe something that speaks to me from a visual and artistic perspective,' the director said.

- Other exhibitions in the new 2026 season are: Interactive Pavilion - 'The New Climate. Are We Ready?' (18 September - 20 December), Temporary Exhibitions Pavilion - 'The Art of Living Lunch' (18 September - 18 October), 'The Anatomy of a Smile' (18 September - 18 October) and 'Postwater. Objects That Lived Another Life at Sea' (18 September - 18 October).

All exhibitions can also be explored as part of guided tours.

During the first weekend after the opening, 19-20 September, Doina Lemny will lead several guided tours of the 'Brancusi and His Muses' exhibition. On Friday, 18 September, at 7:00 pm, Doina Lemny will also give a lecture on the story of Brancusi's muses.

The new edition also marks the start of the special events season: Brunch at the Museum, The Art of Yoga and art workshops - Art, Bubbles & Desserts - combining art with moments of relaxation and memorable experiences.

Art Safari New Museum is held under the High Patronage of the President of Romania, Nicusor Dan. It is organised by the Art Society Cultural Centre, a public utility foundation, and held with the support of Sector 1 City Hall. Across its 18 editions to date, it has recorded more than one million visitors. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Popescu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)