Legendary Place 

Sabin Balasa painted this surreal scene of an imagined landscape, inspired by the sociopolitical context of mid-century Romania, though no date is available. Balasa lived and worked under a communist regime, and was often censored for his art, so paintings like this can be seen as ways of imagining an alternative space free from those constraints. The painting has a dreamlike quality, with a temple-like structure partially submerged in water, a bird perched on the rocks, and ancient sculpture in the foreground. This elicits a feeling of timelessness, speaking to the endurance of memory, myth, and the creative spirit. Does the painting suggest a longing for something beyond the material world? Is it an expression of cultural or personal identity that was repressed during his lifetime? Balasa created his own legendary places to allow his creativity to exist beyond the reach of censorship.