From January 15 to March 2, the Constanța Art Museum hosts the first retrospective exhibition of painter Gheorghe Anghel, following his passing in 2024.
Gheorghe I. Anghel (1938-2024) graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest under the guidance of Ion Marșic and Catul Bogdan. He received drawing and painting lessons from Lola Schmierer Roth, who directed him towards a career as a painter after his time in naval military school.
Anghel's works have been featured in numerous Romanian art exhibitions both domestically and internationally. He was a university professor at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, teaching painting, and one of the first faculty members at the newly established Faculty of Arts in Constanța since 2000. A member of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania since 1968, he received the cultural order in the rank of Grand Officer in 2003 and wrote critical texts for various publications about contemporary visual artists' exhibitions.
His accolades include several prestigious awards, such as the 1971 Metafora Festival in Szczecin (Poland), the 1974 award for Romanian selection at the Cannes-sur-Mer International Festival (France), and the 1983 Ion Andreescu Prize from the Romanian Academy, among others.
Art critics have extensively written about Anghel, with Cristian Robert Velescu describing his work as an authentic work in progress. He suggests that viewing Anghel's paintings can evoke a somewhat uncomfortable feeling, as the body of work appears to be a two-headed entity in a constant struggle for supremacy. Yet, the simplicity and gentleness of the paintings reveal a protean quality that seems to modify visual information independently of the artist's will.
The exhibition's curators, Ion Anghel and Lelia Rus Pîrvan, invite visitors to delve into Anghel's pictorial universe and discover one of the most important contemporary artists.