AREPHY
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AREPHY
17 MAY 2021- 31 MAY 2021
Opening 17 MAY 2021, 17:00
The Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery will host on Monday, May 17, 2021, from 17:00, the retrospective exhibition of the painter Gabriel Stephănescu-Arephy, in compliance with the safety norms in force, in order to prevent contamination with the new SARS-COV-2 coronavirus.
The curator of the exhibition is Mrs. Adina Rențea, President of the Cultural Association for the Support of Fine Arts, and the opening speech will be given by the two special guests of the Arephy event, Mrs. Ilinca Ştefănescu-Neagu, the painter’s niece, and Dr. Cristina Lascu.
The opening will be accompanied by musical chords of the young performer, the violinist Vlad Picioruş.
“Initiated in the secrets of fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest under the guidance of painters Nicolae Vermont and George Demetrescu Mirea, painter Gabriel Stephanescu-Arephy completed his studies in Switzerland with Professor Ferdinand Hodler, then in France he enrolled at the École des Beaux -Arts, where he has André Lhote as his mentor.
The artist debuted with a personal exhibition at the Romanian Athenaeum in 1920, then at the Maison d’Arte in 1923 and at the Mozart Salon in 1930. He was present at the Official Salons in Bucharest between 1930 and 1945. He participated in the frescoes in the Coronation Cathedral in Alba Iulia and the panels of the Mamaia Casino in 1936. In Paris he is a member of the Society of Independents where he regularly exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants from 1922 to 1973, as well as at the Bernheim Jeune Galleries and the Valerie Marie Brisot Gallery. In 1974 he was invited to the Knut-Gunther Gallery in Paris and the opening of the exhibition took place on April 26, 1974.
Retrospective exhibitions took place in Bucharest in 1976 and 1984 at the Eforie Gallery and after the revolution a retrospective exhibition from the entire period of creation took place in 2006 at the Dialog Gallery within the City Hall of sector 2.
Academician Răzvan Theodorescu talks about Gabriel Stephănescu Arephy, not forgetting that his talent and inclination towards the artistic field is also due to the education received in the family, the painter being the son of the famous composer George Stephănescu, the founder of the National Opera and brother of the architect Victor Stephănescu from Alba Iulia, the Casino from Mamaia, and in Bucharest from the Palace of Arts, the National Museum of Geology, the Anglican Church, the Palace of the Military Circle): “Son of a musician with a vocation as a founder in our culture, brother of a notorious architect at the time , this painter, with an intellectual chromaticism, built clear forms that testified to his undisclosed debts to a good foreign art and to the national one, of his great contemporaries. In his taste for mask and transvestites, but also for the refinements of some interior or nature corners, I can discern an irony doubled by a lyricist who loved above all, cultivated and lucid, his profession. ”
“In the series of events on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Institutionalization of the National Opera by Royal Decree of 1.04.1921, the exhibition opened on the evening of May 17, 2021, at the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery, dedicated to the painter Gabriel Stefănescu-Arephy , the only event dedicated to this artist in recent years! Whose works, classified in the category of Treasure of the National Cultural Heritage, are in famous museums in Romania!
The essential merit of his painting consists in the construction of the composition, of the chromatic explosions and, in the case of portraits, in the accentuation of the expression. He oscillated between a geometrized fovism and an artistically transposed expressionism in a personal way.
An exhibition in 20 paintings, from talent to excellence, from love for “profession” to moral and spiritual duty to the nation and to the country! ”
Curator: Adina Renţea