Arnold Daghani's Artistic Struggle in Postwar Romania
Arnold Daghani (1909-1985), a Jewish artist from Romania, grappled with issues of identity and displacement. He was born in Suczawa and later resided in Bucharest. In June 1942, he was sent to the Mikhailowka forced labor camp, but with the assistance of local Jewish resistance, he managed to escape in July 1943. After taking refuge in the Bershad ghetto, he returned to Bucharest in March 1944. His experiences in the camp were chronicled in his 1947 diary, The Grave is in the Cherry Orchard. Following the Communist takeover in 1948, Daghani rejected Socialist Realism and supported himself through teaching. His art, likened to the styles of Matisse and Picasso, garnered a loyal audience. He emigrated to Israel in 1958, eventually settling in Vence, France, where he reflected on his creative years in Bucharest during the socialist upheaval.
Key facts
- Arnold Daghani lived from 1909 to 1985.
- He was deported to the Mikhailowka forced labor camp in June 1942.
- Daghani published his camp diary The Grave is in the Cherry Orchard in 1947.
- He refused to join the Union of Artists and Sculptors until 1957.
- Daghani emigrated to Israel in 1958.
- He recorded 302 visitors to his studio from 1957 to November 1958.
- Critic Petru Comarnescu compared his line work to Picasso.
- Daghani's work was influenced by traditional Romanian folk arts.
Entities
Artists
- Arnold Daghani
- Nanino Daghani
- Paul Celan
- Tristan Tzara
- Marcel Janco
- Georges Janco
- Constantin Brâncusi
- Victor Brauner
- Ion Jalea
- Max Herman Maxy
- Pieter Bruegel
- Matisse
- Picasso
- Daniela Miga
- Oskar Walter Cisek
- Vilma Badian
- Petru Comarnescu
- Andreas Huyssen
- Deborah Schultz
- Martin Kemp
- John Felstiner
- Monica Bohm-Duchen
- Steven A. Mansbach
- Katherine Verdery
- Keith Hitchins
- Vasile Florea
- Lucretiu Patrascanu
- Carola Giedion-Welcker
Institutions
- University of Sussex
- Leverhulme Trust
- Arnold Daghani Collection
- MIT
- Organization Todt
- Romanian Red Cross
- Union of Artists and Sculptors
- State Museum of Art
- Institute of Fine Arts
- Society for Cultural Relations with Abroad
- Criterion avant-garde intellectual group
- Central St Martins School of Art & Design
- Art Monthly
- ARTMargins Online
- The Gallery of Romanian Modern Art
- Dalles Hall
- Good Samaritan Chapel
- Patriarch's Palace
- Ein Hod
Locations
- Romania
- Bucharest
- Suczawa
- Suceava
- Bukovina
- Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Czernowitz
- Mikhailowka
- Ukraine
- Bug River
- Transnistria
- Bershad
- Munich
- Paris
- France
- Zurich
- Switzerland
- Israel
- Ein Hod
- London
- United Kingdom
- Cambridge
- New Haven
- Berkeley
- Los Angeles
- Oxford
- Vence
- Warsaw Bloc
- Soviet Union
- Bessarabia
- Northern Bukovina