Art in Embassies

by Ambassador Mark H. Gitenstein

Introduction

The art we have chosen for the Ambassador’s Residence in Bucharest is from the southern United States. We selected these landscapes for several reasons: first, my wife, Libby, and I wanted to feature American art that reminded us of the terrain and culture of Romania. We wanted to show Romanians visiting our home in Bucharest that the United States, especially the southern United States, looks a lot like Romania.

The rich verdant hills and mountains of Transylvania remind us of the mountains of the western Carolinas (particularly in the works by Phil Garrett and Carl Blair). Indeed, this was surely one of the reasons that the producers of the movie Cold Mountain chose Romania as the site for shooting this 2003 classic. The works by the Bayou Art Colony (especially those of Carlos Alpha "Shiney" Moon) reminded us of the stark beauty of the Danube Delta. The fragile Mandy's Shanty could be a Roma house and Day’s Haul could as easily be in Sulina at the mouth of the Danube as it is in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

Second, this exhibition is built around two men who influenced me, both southerners. Mark B. Coplan of Columbia, South Carolina, was a dear friend of mine and Libby’s whom we met while attending Duke University. Mark was the premier art collector of his generation in South Carolina. His unexpected death in 2002 not only shocked us but cut short the life of a man of culture and warmth, who would undoubtedly have become one of America’s great collectors. Although the works by Blair, Garrett, Hutty, and Williams were not part of Mark’s collection, the artists were among his favorites. The second man, Carlos Alpha “Shiney” Moon was an artist from my home town of Florala, Alabama. I grew up seeing his paintings in homes in Florala. Indeed, his wife, Sadie, gave us a “Shiney” as a wedding gift. I paint water colors in my spare time and it wasn’t until I saw this selection of originals hanging in our living room in Bucharest, that I realized what a subconscious impact his coastal landscapes had on my taste in art. To me these landscapes of his, so like the Danube Delta, are “home.” These similarities of terrain, as well as the fact that I am Romanian-American, stand as evidence to all who visit the Residence that our roots actually intertwine.

Ambassador Mark Gitenstein and Mrs. Libby Gitenstein
Bucharest, August 2011