The building sheltering the Art Museum belonged to Nae and Tita Simian family from Săliştea Sibiului, owners of a footwear factory in Râmnicu Vâlcea, by the middle of the 20th century. The house has a specific architectonic structure, comprising two types of space, one of which reveals the expressivity of the old house of the Simian family, built in 1940 by the architects Gheorghe Simotta (1891 - 1979) and Nicolae Lupu, both neo-Romanian in style, and the other one neutral, meeting the requirements of an art gallery, built when the house turned into a museum. The permanent exhibition of the Art Museum gathers valuable Romanian paintings and sculptures by some famous artis...ts from the end of the 19th century: N. Grigorescu, Nicolae Vermont, Sabin Popp, Ipolit Strambu, Sava Henţia, Ion Georgescu, and Fr. Storck. The museum holds works from the first half of the 20th century by Gh. Petraşcu, N. Tonitza, Th. Pallady, and C. Michailescu. The works from the second half of the 20th century include paintings by: H. Catargi, I. Ţuculescu, Florin Niculiu, Margareta Sterian, Micaela Eleutheriade, Lucia Dem. Bălăcescu, Corneliu Baba, Camil Ressu, Horia Bernea, Virgil Almaşanu, Dan Hatmanu, Sabin Bălaşa, Ion Sălişteanu, Paul Gherasim, Ion Grigorescu, Marin Gherasim, Viorel Mărgineanu etc. and a few sculptures including some of remarkable artistic achievement by George Apostu, Ovidiu Maitec and Costel Badea. The museum has a Venetian school painting from the first half of the 18th century. Due to a creation camp, during the last decade of the 20th century, the collections were enriched with works by contemporary painters: Vasile Tolan, Horia Petruţiu, Vioara Bara, Mircea Catuşanu, Adrian Chira, Ion Augustin Pop, Ştefan Pelmuş, and Epaminonda Tiotiu. During the same period the Art Museum received an important donation from the artists Gheorghiţa and Gregorian Rusu, comprising paintings and graphics. Although not on a permanent basis, the exhibits include also rare Romanian art items, icons and religious items from the County Museum collection, revealing formal tendencies from the 16th - 19th centuries, representative for Vâlcea County. The Art Museum also holds a rich collection of graphics, drawings and watercolours that are on display on a temporary basis. Each year the Art Museum organizes contemporary painting and sculpture exhibitions, and in summer time, in the inner courtyard local fine artists exhibit their works.
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