Untitled 

This "Untitled" diptych was made by Sorin Dumitrescu, an artist born in Romania in 1946. The image depicts two hands, one gripping a rod, the other, perhaps, receiving. Dumitrescu came of age artistically in a Romania then under the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. It was a time when visual art was heavily regulated and controlled by the state. Artists were expected to produce works that promoted the values and goals of the communist regime. But Dumitrescu's work often carried a subtle challenge to these social constraints. His visual language contains an esoteric, deeply personal symbolism, which at the time flew under the radar of the cultural establishment. He subtly critiqued the institutions of art production and reception by creating work that invited individual, rather than collective or state, contemplation. Understanding art like Dumitrescu’s requires familiarity with the socio-political context in which it was made, and, of course, the artist’s biography. The tools of the historian are invaluable in such study.