Aida Tomescu (born October 1955) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

contemporary artist who is known for her abstract paintings, collages, drawings and prints. Tomescu is a winner of the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the

Wynne Prize The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...

for Landscape and the

Sir John Sulman Prize The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Gallery ...

, by the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

.Pearce, Barry. '100 Moments in Australian Painting', 2014, NewSouth Publishing, in association with the Art Gallery of NSW

Early life and education

Tomescu was born in October 1955 in Bucharest, Romania where she lived until age 23. She arrived in Australia one year later, in May 1980. She studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in the late 1970s. In 1977 she graduated with a diploma in painting and two years later she had her first solo exhibition. In 1983 she completed a post-graduate diploma in visual arts at the City Art Institute in Sydney.

The seed of her career as a painter became planted in Aida Tomescu while studying at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in the late 1970s, when she closely studied the work of Cézanne and his legacy through cubism. She read
Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
's famous essay, "Concerning the spiritual in art" ... When she emigrated to Australia from Romania and took up study at the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1980 she was ripe for a dedication to abstract painting from which she never wavered.

Career

After her initial traditional studio- and theory-based training in Bucharest, Tomescu's work gradually evolved towards abstraction. She was affected by the bright Australian light, which eventually worked its way into her work. Tomescu said: "One of the first things that happened here is that I bought bigger canvases, I increased the scale. Though I was continuing as a painter, I needed a whole new vocabulary, and this would only develop gradually." Her work has been informed by Paul Cézanne and cubism,

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

and the ideas of

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

expressed in his 1910 book ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''. When she emigrated to Australia from Romania she studied at the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1980, and has not diverted from her interest in abstract painting. In 1986 Tomescu was invited to the Victorian Print Workshop, now the Australian Print Workshop. As an artist who regarded drawing as an important part of her practice, she found the experience of working with etching plates liberating as she had to "curb any craving for precision and for controlling an image". At the same time, Tomescu "loved its transformative powers over my drawing, the way in which it liberated my drawing in the acid tray. Materiality was removed entirely by the acid, so I was left with an image that is really vulnerable, open." Tomescu is represented by Flowers Gallery and Jensen Gallery.

Exhibitions

Tomescu held her first exhibition "based on still-life" in 1979, in Bucharest. She has exhibited regularly in Australia and internationally, with over 30 solo exhibitions to date. From 1985 to 1995, she was exhibiting at the Coventry Gallery, Sydney with "regular solo shows of her dark abstract paintings". In 1987 Tomescu exhibited in Canberra at the Ben Grady Gallery.

Sasha Grishin Alexander "Sasha" Dmitrievich Grishin is an Australian art historian, art critic and curator based in Victoria and Canberra. He is known as an art critic, and for establishing the academic discipline of art history at the Australian National Uni ...

, senior art critic for ''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

'' found her work to be in "a bit of a time warp" back to a time when abstract expressionism was the "dominant style" and the challenge for the artist would be, after "redisovering" abstract expressionism, to "build on it and create their own unique style". In 1991, a smaller version of the Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition ''Abstraction'' was shown at the Nolan Gallery, Lanyon ACT. Art critic Sonia Barron, writing for ''The Canberra Times'', was disappointed in the exhibition but found at least that Tomescu communicated "a spiritual anxiety in her dark expressionist canvases". In 1994, the art collector and art gallery owner Chandler Coventry showed a collection of 300 prints he had acquired in the exhibition ''Obsession''. The diverse collection of works included 10 works by Aida Tomescu and art critic

remarked that her worked "places her as one of the leading exponents of

gestural abstraction Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical a ...

in this country". In 2009 her work was the subject of a major survey exhibition, ''Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings'' at the Drill Hall Gallery,

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

. Art critic John McDonald expressed admiration for Tomescu's "sense of colour and surface texture". He referred to the paint being laid on in "concrete-like slabs" with the works on paper consisting of a "frenzied mass of squiggles and disjointed calligraphy" and found the body of work "alive and convincing". Tomescu's graphic works were included in the major survey of prints and drawings ''Out of Australia'' at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, London in 2011. Tomescu's work was included in a major touring exhibition, ''Abstraction: Celebrating Australian Women Abstract Artists,'' a touring exhibition (2017–2019) from the National Gallery of Australia. Other exhibitions include ''The Triumph of Modernism'' at

TarraWarra Museum of Art TarraWarra Museum of Art is an art museum in Tarrawarra, Victoria, 45 kilometres northeast of Melbourne. Founded by philanthropists and art collectors Eva and Marc Besen, it is the first museum of art in Australia supported by a significant priva ...

Art Basel Hong Kong Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international Art exhibition, art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local instit ...

(2019, 2018, 2017 & 2015), ''Wet, Wet, Wet,'' Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2019) ''The Anatomy of Gesture,'' Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2017); ''Chromoffection'', Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2016), 'The Heide Collection’,

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum houses modern and contemporary art across three distinct exhibition buildings and is set ...

(2015); ''Vibrant Matter,'' TarraWarra Museum of Art (2013), ''The Mind’s Eye'', Art Gallery of South Australia (2013), ''Forever Young'', Heide Museum of Modern Art (2011), and ''Contemporary Encounters'',

Ian Potter Centre The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is an art gallery that houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is located at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victori ...

: National Gallery of Victoria (2010).

Critical reception

Australian art historian

Patrick McCaughey Patrick McCaughey (born 1942) is an Irish-born Australian art historian and academic. McCaughey was born in Belfast, his father being Davis McCaughey. He migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia. when he was ten years old. His secondary ...

writes of Tomescu in his 2014 book ''Strange Country: Why Australian Painting Matters'':

neof the best painters at work in Australia today, Aida Tomescu has revived a full-throated painterly abstraction, where colour and gesture flow through the work...she knits over and under surfaces in which the light and colour seem to be pulsing from within the work, not just laid on top. You feel her presence and her sensibility, moment to moment on the surface, in the painting.

Art critic for ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' John McDonald wrote on August 25, 2012:

Aida Tomescu, who is consolidating a reputation as one of Australia's most formidable living abstract painters...is making the point that she is not interested in arbitrary "mark-making" — she is after something she calls an "image". Even though most people might associate this word with a recognisable object, Tomescu's image is very different. It seems closer to the image of Christ or the Virgin in Byzantine art, which was meant to embody the presence of the holy being in the work.McDonald, John. "Wild and Wondrous", Spectrum, ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', August 25, 2012

Christopher Allen in ''Art in Australia from Colonization to Postmodernism'' wrote:

"Aida Tomescu’s paintings…draws us into the intense concentration of its own making…(she) starts with energy and movement and seems to be trying to do the near-impossible — to reach stillness from such a starting-point."

Awards and commissions

, 1996 (''Grey to Grey'') * The

, 2001 * The Dobell Prize for Drawing, 2003 * Winner of the inaugural LFSA Arts 21 Fellowship at the

, 1996, Melbourne * Victorian Print Workshop residency, Myer Art Foundation, 1986

Collections

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

(70 works, including ''Alba II'' 2002 and ''Ithaca V'' 1997) *

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

(9 works, including ''Oz'' and ''Seria Unu'' III) *

(27 works, including ''Negru I'' and ''Negru IV'') *

Auckland Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

, New Zealand (''Zattere/Margharita'') *

, London (9 prints, including ''Ithaca IX'' and ''Ithaca VI'') *

QAGOMA The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, colloquially known as QAGOMA, is an art museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It consists of the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), which is the main building, and a second gallery, the Ga ...

(2 works, ''Semn'' 1990, and ''Vis'' 1, ''Vis'' 2, ''Vis'' 3) *

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

References

External links

Aida Tomescu's official website

Artist profile, Fox Jensen/Fox Jensen McCrory Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomescu, Aida Living people 1955 births Artists from Bucharest Romanian emigrants to Australia Australian women painters 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian painters