later, he became the editor of the art magazine "artele frumoase", and, in 1922, traveled to transylvania, where he befriended aurel popp. the same year, he took camil ressu's defense during a scandal involving the latter's design for a national theater curtain, attacking the artistic guidelines advocated by the cultural establishment ("[romania is] the country where scientist historians compose erotic pieces and embarrassing rhymes, [...] where intellectual women draw the gusty gestures of decrepit election agents, [...] where physicians push their rusty hypodermics into the unmentionable muscle tissues of artists as a means to draw up aesthetical logarithms"). in 1926, tonitza, oscar han, francisc şirato, and ştefan dimitrescu, organized themselves as "grupul celor patru" ("the group of four"). he met success in 1925, after opening a large exhibit of his vălenii de munte paintings in bucharest, while raising controversy (including criticism from ressu) over his "poster-like" style.