ION GRIGORESCU: The Painted Work, 1963-2017

The exhibition offers a synthetic glimpse into Ion Grigorescu’s painted oeuvre. It comprises 80 of the artists’ works created between 1963 and 2017, drawn from 10 museums and art galleries and 20 private Romanian and foreign collections.

Ion Grigorescu (b.1945) graduated the Nicolae Grigorescu Fine Arts Institute in Bucharest in 1969, Professor Aurel Vlad class. In 1971 he joined the Romanian Fine Artists’ Union and in 1989 the PROLOG group (along Paul Gherasim, Constantin Flondor, Horea Paștina, Christian Paraschiv, Mihai Sârbulescu, Matei Lăzărescu). While better known as a photographer, performance, film and video artist, Ion Grigorescu is, in the words of Erwin Kessler, the one Romanian artist who, through his contribution, significantly changed the course of painting from a traditional practice to a conceptual means of artistic creation.

Ion Grigorescu’s works were exhibited at major art events, from the Documenta in Kassel (2007) to the Venice Biennale (1997 and 2011) and are among the holdings of prestigious museums such as MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris) and Tate Modern (London).

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive critical catalogue in Romanian and English, ION GRIGORESCU: The Painted Work, Erwin Kessler ed., 512 p., 700 ill., Vellant Publishing House.

Curator: Erwin Kessler, art historian and critic, director, Museum of Recent Art.

National Gallery Wing, Groundfloor
Calea Victoriei 49-53, 
Open 9 July to 22 October 2017
Visiting hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11.00 - 19.00 hrs (until 30 September)
Wednesday to Sunday 10.00 – 18.00 hrs (October)
Tickets: 10 lei 
Free every first Wednesday of the month