Ileana Pintilie's Book Uncovers Romanian Action Art Under Communism

In her 2001 work, 'Actionism in Romania During the Communist Era,' Ileana Pintilie examines the contributions of twenty-eight Romanian artists active between 1960 and 1989. She emphasizes how figures like Paul Neagu produced art within black boxes, rendering their creations unseen by audiences. Pintilie, who serves as an art historian at West University in Timișoara, classifies the artistic output of the 1960s-1970s and the 1980s, asserting that Romanian action art evolved in a vacuum, often divided between the official Union of Fine Art and individual pursuits. The ideological theses of 1971 exacerbated this division. Notable artists discussed include Ion Grigorescu, Wanda Mihuleac, and Amalia Perjovschis, with the book also comparing Romanian action art to Moscow conceptualism and providing a timeline of cultural events from 1950-1989, highlighting the rise of political radicalism in the 1980s.