Ion Grigorescu. The Painted Works 1963-2022

With over 160 works added since the first edition, this critical catalog pays homage to a fundamental artist in art criticism. The catalog represents an exploration of painting in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, navigating between dilemmas and impulses, between stagnation and revolution, oscillating between the material and the spiritual dimensions.

Ion Grigorescu, born in 1945, is a graduate of the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, class of 1969, under the guidance of Prof. Aurel Vlad, and has been a member of the Union of Fine Artists since 1971. Since 1989, he has been part of the PROLOG GROUP, alongside Paul Gherasim, Constantin Flondor, Horea Paștina, Christian Paraschiv, Mihai Sârbulescu, and Matei Lăzărescu. Although Ion Grigorescu is renowned as a photographer, performance artist, filmmaker, and video artist, his contribution as a painter remains less known, despite being “the Romanian artist who has made the most significant contribution to transforming painting from a traditional practice into a conceptual artistic medium” (Erwin Kessler).

The artist has participated in over 300 group exhibitions and has held 42 solo exhibitions both in Romania and internationally. Ion Grigorescu’s works have been showcased in the most prestigious global artistic events, from Documenta in Kassel (2007) to the Venice Biennale (1997 and 2011), and his pieces are part of the collections of some of the world’s most renowned Librarys, such as the Library of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Pompidou Center in Paris, and Tate Modern in London.