[1] Together with writer Mircea Eliade, Ion Valentin Anestin published the magazine Est-Vest, which was established in 1927 and ceased its existence after only a couple of issues.

[3] In 1928, he joined Vladimir Donescu on the staff of Vremea, editing its theater and art page between 1931 and 1943, while being responsible for the journal's graphic design.

[2][4] In parallel, Anestin contributed to a large number of newspapers and magazines (including Epoca, Adevărul Literar și Artistic, Timpul, Gluma, Cuvântul Liber, and the Romanian Communist Party's Bluze Albastre),[1] and became a trend-setter in graphic art for the entire interwar period.

[2] Noted for his left-wing convictions,[1] he drew individual and group satirical portraits of major figures of his day, both Romanian (Nicolae Titulescu, Alexandru Averescu, Lucian Blaga, Ion Inculeț, Ion Mihalache, Iuliu Maniu, Gheorghe Tătărescu, Octavian Goga) and foreign (Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin).

[4] During World War II, beginning a month before the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and continuing throughout Romania's alliance with the Axis Powers (see Romania during World War II), Anestin's work centered on denouncing Stalin and the Soviet Union, in a series titled Măcelarul din Piața Roșie ("The Red Square Butcher") published by the magazine Gluma.