Margareta Wechsler "Medi" Dinu ( – July 18, 2016) was a Romanian classical painter of Jewish origin.

Early life

Margareta Wechsler Dinu was born in

Brezoi Brezoi is a town located in Vâlcea County, Romania. It administers eight villages: Călinești, Corbu, Drăgănești, Golotreni, Păscoaia, Proieni, Valea lui Stan and Văratica. It is situated in the historical region of Oltenia Oltenia (, also ...

Vâlcea County Vâlcea County (also spelt ''Vîlcea''; ) is a county ( județ) of Romania. Located in the historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (which are separated by the Olt River), it is also part of the wider Wallachia region. Its capital city is Râm ...

, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, Daniel Wechsler, and a violin player, Amalia Hirschfeld. Due to the rise in power of the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was strongly ...

, at the age of 8, she was forced to leave her hometown of Brezoi and in the next few years lived in several cities:

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Târgoviște Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște''; german: Tergowisch) is a city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița River. Târgoviște was one of the ...

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

Oradea Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

Râmnicu Vâlcea Râmnicu Vâlcea (also spelled ''Rîmnicu Vîlcea'' or, in the past, ''Rîmnic-Vâlcea'', ) (population: 92,573 as per the 2011 Romanian census) is the county capital ( ro, Reședință de județ) and also the largest town of Vâlcea County, cent ...

. She was spared deportation due to her father's veteran status. Medi pursued her studies, graduated from the

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

"Choisi Mangru" high-school in Bucharest and learned to speak in four languages: Romanian, German, Hungarian and French. Encouraged by her arts teacher, painter Costin Petrescu, she continued her studies at the Academy of Belle Arte, under

Ipolit Strâmbu Ipolit Strâmbulescu, known as Ipolit Strâmbu (18 May 1871 in Baia de Aramă, Bratilovu, Mehedinți County – 31 October 1934 in Bucharest), was a Romanian painter best known for his portraits of women, which ranged from domestic scenes to ...

and

Jean Alexandru Steriadi Jean Alexandru Steriadi (29 October 1880 – 23 November 1956) was a Romanian painter and drawing artist. He made portraits and compositions based on a strong, expressive drawing; then he evolved towards impressionistic Impressionism was a ...

. At the same time, she studied at the Faculty of Mathematics under Dan Barbilian and the Faculty of Philosophy under

Dimitrie Gusti Dimitrie Gusti (; 13 February 1880 – 30 October 1955) was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of ...

and

Nae Ionescu Nae Ionescu (, born Nicolae C. Ionescu; – 15 March 1940) was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist. Near the end of his career, he became known for his antisemitism and devotion to far right politics, in th ...

Career

Dinu debuted in 1932 at the "Official Salon of White and Black" exhibition in Bucharest, with a self-portrait. She joined the Syndicate of Artists a year later, which enabled her to travel to

Balchik Balchik ( bg, Балчик ; ro, Balcic) is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Southern Dobruja area of northeastern Bulgaria. It is in Dobrich Province, 35 km southeast of Dobrich and 42 km northeast of Varna. It spra ...

, a meeting place of the (mostly Jewish) avant-garde artists of the time. Between 1934 and 1939, she visited the city of

on several occasions and completed a number of works, befriending personalities such as

Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufacturer who subseque ...

Gellu Naum Gellu Naum (1 August 1915 – 29 September 2001) was a Romanian poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist group. The artist Lygia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration a ...

Sașa Pană Sașa Pană (; pen name of Alexandru Binder; 8 August 1902—22 August 1981) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer. Biography Born to a Jewish family in Bucharest, he trained as a physician in Iași and Bucharest, b ...

Geo Bogza Geo Bogza (; born Gheorghe Bogza; February 6, 1908 – September 14, 1993) was a Romanian avant-garde theorist, poet, and journalist, known for his left-wing and communist political convictions. As a young man in the interwar period, he was known ...

. Here, she also met poet

Gheorghe Dinu Stephan Roll (pen name of Gheorghe Dinu, also credited as Stéphane, Stefan or Ștefan Roll; June 5, 1904 – May 14, 1974) was a Romanian poet, editor, film critic, and communist militant. An autodidact, he played host to the Romanian avant-garde a ...

, who became her husband. In 1939, the mayor of Balchik,

Octavian Moşescu Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

, invited Dinu to exhibit her works alongside other artists in the city's school. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Dinu was prohibited by the authoritarian

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

from publishing her works and began working as a school teacher at a Jewish school in Bucharest. Between 1940 and 1986, she traveled and worked in various cities in Romania, Bulgaria and France. Her work remained largely unknown until 2003, when she returned to her artistic life and took part in the "Senior contemporary painters of Romanian" exhibition in Bucharest, receiving critical acclaim. In 2008, Dinu created two exhibitions at the Museums of Art in

Constanța Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...

and

Tulcea Tulcea (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in Northern Dobruja, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea County, and had a population of 73,707 . One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city. Names Th ...

, donating a part of her works to these institutions. In January 2009, at her centenarian anniversary, the National Foundation for Sciences and Art of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

hosted a retrospective exhibition of her works. In 2010, she was awarded the "Victor Brauner Trophy" by the Niram Art Publishing House in Madrid. In 2016, on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

, Dinu's works from various periods were displayed as part of the exhibition "Ages of Youth" at the "House of Arts" Cultural Center in Bucharest. Dinu's works can be found at the municipal Museums of Art of Constanța, Tulcea, Râmnicu Vâlcea; at the Metropolitan Library "Mihail Sadoveanu", at Eminescu's Memorial in Ipotești and private collections.

Artistical style

The body of her work includes pencil drawings and paintings (water colors or oil) depicting portraits, nature or marine landscapes. Her work belongs to the

classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

and can be described as lyrical

figurative art Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

, almost mathematical in simplicity, nature being stripped down to its essentials. Even though she worked and befriended various personalities of the Romanian interbellum

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

, she did not approve nor understand their movement, claiming that it was disconnected from the past.

Death

Dinu died on July 18, 2016, at the age of 107, at a Jewish nursing home in Bucharest.Famous painter Medi Dinu dies at 107
In regards to her age, at 101, she remarked that "maybe that's why God gave me so many years, to tell small things which have not been passed down."

References

External links

Gallery of works
– wikiart.org
Niram Art Awards: Medi Dinu
- video includes interview in Romanian with the artist (with Spanish subtitles) and slideshow of her works {{DEFAULTSORT:Dinu, Medi 1909 births 2016 deaths Romanian Jews Romanian centenarians Romanian painters Romanian avant-garde People from Vâlcea County Women centenarians Romanian women painters