Miracle 

Sabin Balasa, a Romanian painter, created this oil painting, "Miracle," sometime during his career. The artwork invites us to consider what Balasa thought of the world around him and to explore the visual symbols he employed to convey that message. Balasa’s art often incorporates fantastical elements and surreal imagery that encourage symbolic interpretation. Consider the white horse here, bearing birds on its back, standing against a background of both organic and geometric shapes. A fiery sun dominates the scene. His work often incorporated stylistic elements of Byzantine art, an aesthetic that was promoted institutionally under the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu for its nationalist associations. The status of artists in Eastern Europe during the Soviet era was fraught with danger, and some artists sought refuge in abstraction and symbolism. The images can be compared to Surrealist or Magic Realist painting from the West, but Romanian art historians can provide a more detailed interpretation of Balasa’s visual vocabulary.