Folk Art and its influence on European Culture

The notion of folk art defines the

creation that does not enroll in classical and modern arts, but in

general is included in handicraft, traditional

or domestic production.

Romania was named the country of folk art and this fact is well-known in Europe. Besides that Romania has famous people like: Constantin Brâncuși (artist), Nadia Comăneci (gymnast) or Ilie Năstase (tennis player) , they have always expressed themselves in terms of art.

We all know that folk culture is seen as a

small piece of art but it’s not like that . It has been considered a huge inspiration for artists all over the world and they

still think that their artworks wouldn’t have

got here without the Folk art as their

inspiration. According to what media says, folk art influence is

still here and it makes its presence noticeable .

If at its beginnings , the folk arts had usually anonymous origins, recently more and more artists that have become interested in Romanian traditions, have surfaced on the market.

Whether it is an icon, a gate, a jug, a carpet or a traditional costume, folk art, except for technique and the functions they fulfill, reflects our people’s artistic skills. Despite urban influence penetration, with a lot of industrial

products, in the village

life we can still discover traditional houses , perhaps as a proof of a renewal to those traditions that just needed to be adapted to contemporary life.

Another perplexing

influence and development of the popular art in the

everyday life, is the transmission of the

specific elements from Romania’s traditional

costume into the fashion designer clothes, due to which one of the main elements of Romanian

traditionalism is now well known worldwide.

There are many examples to be given but we chose the most striking and known one : our embroidered shirt . It became very popular through years and now a lot of people wear it , not a sign of an undeveloped country culture but as a sign of pride or pure fashion .

It’s not unusual to see it on people so why

not adding the embroidery model on

something else? Artists added the design on different things like

furniture or decoration or paintings and they

called them in a simple way : folk .

Castles in RomaniaCastles in Romania are

declared historic monuments by the Romanian Culture Ministry. They also represent folkloric art with their architecture.

Bran Castle , Peleş Castle and Hunyads Castle are 3 of the most known and they were built in different times but the folk theme is visible in all of their designs.

Peleș Castle

Bran Castle – “Dracula’s Castle”

Hunyads Castle

One of the most interesting subjects is the culinary one. It’s amazing to see how world known chefs admire out traditional culinary culture and try to recreate the flavors .

Pleșcoi Sausages Traditional Cake

Gastronomy

Pork Stew – ,,Tochitură’’ This dish called ,,tochitură’’ is

made of meat(pork, beef, chicken), organs(liver, heart, kidneys), sausages, bacon, polenta, eggs and cheese.

Buzău Cracknels

Folk art and its influence on European Culture

National College “ Mihai Eminescu” , Buzău, România

Sarah OkolisanBianca PârvuCristina Toma

Teachers : Vlad Mihaela – English teacher Florentina Dobre – French teacher