Under the National Legionary State, Bassarab returned to favor as one of the leading political iconographers, also urging others to contribute "epic" art in support of the regime.

[6] Bassarab joined the Iron Guard, a native fascist movement, in 1932, and, as an aspiring propagandist, helped set up its artistic club, named after Ștefan Luchian, and its Ideea României Lodge.

[7] From October 1934, with Stamatu, Zlotescu, Ciucurencu, Ioan Victor Vojen, Dan Botta, and Radu Gyr, Bassarab was also active in the art collective Arta și Omul.

[13] As a contributor to Ideea Românească review, in June 1937 Bassarab co-authored (with Stamatu, Zlotescu, and Pavel Costin Deleanu), the manifesto Revoluția așezării românești ("A Revolution in Romanian Settlement").

[14] According to historian Roland Clark, Bassarab and Zlotescu endure as "[the Guard's] best painters", both of them being guided by Theodorescu-Sion's neotraditionalism; all three were indebted to Romanian folklore, depicting peasants as "active, heroic figures", "dynamic, virile, determined".

[15] Their art, seen by far-right chroniclers as a "purely Romanian" enterprise, was prominently displayed at the Guard's Bucharest offices, Casa Verde, during a September 1937 exhibit.

According to Polihroniade's retelling of the campaign, Bassarab was able to outsmart rival politicians, in particular those of the National Christian Party, ensuring that the results were properly tabulated.

"[20] On December 4, he returned to his native city, where Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was inaugurating a Christian-only consumers' co-operative, specifically boycotting Romanian Jewish merchants.

[1] Subsequently, the National Renaissance Front dictatorship kept Bassarab under close watch, documenting his participation (with Polihroniade, Ion Zelea Codreanu, and Bănică Dobre) in the clandestine Guardist reunion of Călărași (February 1938).

On March 17, 1940, Bassarab, like Gyr, Radu Meitani and Ștefan Palaghiță, signed up to a letter which affirmed their loyalty to the throne, describing themselves as legionarii de ieri ("former Guardists").

[28] Bassarab now showcased work that was highly political, including portraits of folk heroes such as Horia alongside Guard commanders such as C. Z. Codreanu, Ion Moța and Gheorghe Clime.

[30] Appointed to other high positions in the field of propaganda, Bassarab stirred controversy by suggesting that artists should abandon easel painting in favor of "epic" muralism.

[33] In December 1940, Bassarab organized an exhibit, Munca legionară ("Legionary Labor"), also at Sala Dalles, which represented a fusion of art with Guardist ideology.

[36] Also in December 1940, Brăileanu's own journal, Însemnări Sociologice, put out Bassarab's article, Viața legionară, isvor de creație ("Guardist Life as a Source of Inspiration").

[1][40] An obituary by Comarnescu saw print in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, praising Bassarab as the "laborer-artist" who, in dying, lived up to his "heroic perspective on art": "it was given to him that he should accomplish more as a Romanian soldier than as an artist, his very sound debut notwithstanding.

"[6] Bassarab's propaganda work was formally banned soon after Antonescu's downfall, as the new regime and the Allied Commission clamped down on all forms of fascist literature and art.