Moisey Gamburd ^People

Gamburd studied at the Academy ofArts in Brussels (1925-1930). Beginningin 1930 he worked in Moldova. He painted genre pictures of peasant life and na- tional history, as well as portraits of Moldovan workers. Among his works were The Mowers, Motherhood, and The Family - none of whose location is known. Gamburd also painted Be Damned! (1945), Likbez (1947), The Spinner (1947), The Underground Press of the Newspaper Iskra ni Chisināu (1948), and Portrait of Brigade Leader M. Cebanu, all of which are in the Art Museum of the Moldovan SSR in Chisinau. Most of the drawings and paintings by Moisey and Eugenia Gamburd in theexhibition can be categorized as quiet art. This informal trend emerged in the early 1930s in Stalinist visual culture, which was not homogeneous as is traditionally assumed. It included chamber works that were free of any specific ideology and dealt exclusive- yl with aesthetic aspects as opposed to the pompous baroque and neo-classicism of totalitarianism. Stylistically, however, it remained firmly within the framework of Realism, since under the strict rules of censorship, even the slightest deformation of theimage, the introduction of elements of primitivism, sketchiness or decorativeness, was cause enough to accuse the artist of ignoring the traditions of realistic art. With the passing of time, the chamber pieces of Moisey and Eugenia Gamburd have become the most interesting works from among their respective oeuvres.