Paul Neagu

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Paul Neagu (born February 22, 1938 in Bucharest , † June 16, 2004 in London ) was a British-Romanian draftsman , sculptor , painter and performance artist .

Life

Paul Neagu was the second son of six children of the cobbler Tudor Neagu and his wife Rosalie, and grew up in Timișoara . He studied philology , philosophy and engineering . From 1959 to 1965 he studied at the National University of the Arts in Bucharest at the Institute of Plastic Art "Nicolae Grigorescu" . Before starting his artistic career, he worked as an electrician and technical draftsman. His marriage to Sibyla Orancea, entered into in 1965, was dissolved in 1967 without children.

When the Romanian government temporarily relaxed its minority and cultural policy, he traveled to London in 1969 at the invitation of the artist Richard Demarco , where he has lived and worked ever since. Neagu made a contribution to Demarco's program at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe together with the up-and-coming artists Joseph Beuys and Tadeusz Kantor .

In London, he has lectured in fine arts at Hornsey College of Art , Slade School of Fine Art , and Chelsea College of Art and Design . In 1976 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Royal College of Art . His students included Antony Gormley , Anish Kapoor , Tony Cragg , Langlands & Bell , and Rachel Whiteread .

Neagu was granted British citizenship in 1977 and regained his Romanian citizenship between 1991 and 1992. In addition to teaching, Paul Neagu pursued his own artistic career. His heavy coffee and tobacco consumption later caused him health problems. In 1989, his sister donated a kidney for a transplant. In 2003 he suffered a stroke that left him with a speech impediment.

After Neagu's death, the Flowers East gallery in London sold works from his estate.

Artistic creation

Neagu's background as a technical draftsman was also evident in his drawings and sculptures. His sculptures convey the idea of ​​movement through abstract form. His drawings, paintings, sculptures and performances are closely linked. Typical of his work are star shapes and other geometric shapes, often made of stainless steel, the surface structure of which catches and refracts the light. They invite the viewer to participate and require their concentration; they need time and space to find their way into his consciousness.

The shoemaker's last , a triangular piece of wood or metal in the shape of a foot, on which shoes are manufactured or repaired, became the trademark that he called hyphae , which he called hyphae , which was recurring in Neagus' works . For the religious Neagu, who had deep respect for "sacred geometry", the hypha symbolized the formal trinity of the triangle, square and circle. He saw in the hypha the source of an all-encompassing energy for the control of human and thus imaginative life.

Neagu's works are in numerous public collections, including the British Museum , the Tate Gallery , the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh . Further works can be found in the collections of the Fonds départemental d'art contemporain in Bobigny , the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane , the Musee Cantonal de Beaux Arts in Lausanne , the Muzeul Național de Artă al României in Bucharest, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art .

Two of his works have been public sculptures in his home country since 1990; Crucea Mileniului at Piața Charles de Gaulle in Bucharest, as well as Crucificarea ( German  crucifixion ) at Piața Victoriei in Timișoara.

Neagu has exhibited his work around the world and has received numerous awards, including the Japanese Government's Blue Ribbon Medal (Kongo Hosyo) in 1996 and the Leverhulme Trust Research Award in 1997.

literature

  • Matei Stircea-Craciun: "Nine Catalytic Stations / Noua statiuni catalitice", a study in hylesic symbolism, Editura Anastasia, Romania, 2003

Web links

Commons : Paul Neagu  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Petru Ilieșu names the sculpture The Broken Cross ( Romanian Crucea ruptă ) in his book , see A tourist in Timișoara - Tourist in Timișoara , Planetarium, Timișoara, 2008, ISBN 978-973-108-154-0 , ISBN 978-973- 88331-2-8
personal data
SURNAME Neagu, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Romanian sculptor, painter and performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 2004
Place of death London