Encouraged by her arts teacher, painter Costin Petrescu, she continued her studies at the Academy of Belle Arte (now Bucharest National University of Arts), under Ipolit Strâmbu and Jean Alexandru Steriadi. Dinu took her degree in 1932.
Encouraged by her arts teacher, painter Costin Petrescu, she continued her studies at the Academy of Belle Arte (now Bucharest National University of Arts), under Ipolit Strâmbu and Jean Alexandru Steriadi. Dinu took her degree in 1932.
Medi Wechsler Dinu (born Margareta Wechsler Dinu) was a Romanian classical painter. She was known for making numerous portraits of Romanian cultural personalities: George Bacovia, Agatha Bacovia, Victor Brauner, Zaharia Stancu, Aurel Baranga, Heda Stern, among others.
Background
Medi Wechsler Dinu was born on December 22, 1908 in Brezoi, Valcea, Romania. The daughter of a Jewish accountant, Daniel Wechsler, and a violin player, Amalia Hirschfeld.
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, Târgoviște, Cluj, Oradea, Râmnicu Vâlcea. She was spared deportation due to her father's veteran status.
Education
Medi Dinu finished high school in Bucharest at Choisi Mangru Finishing School and spoke 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 (now Bucharest National University of Arts), under Ipolit Strâmbu and Jean Alexandru Steriadi. Dinu took her degree in 1932.
At the same time, she studied at the Faculty of Mathematics under Ion Barbu (pen name - Dan Barbilian) and the Faculty of Philosophy under Dimitrie Gusti and Nae Ionescu.
Medi Wechsler Dinu made her debut in 1932 at the Official Salon Black and White with a self-portrait. In 1934 she had the opportunity to go and paint for a month in Balchic at the Romanian artists’ house of creation.
Between 1934 and 1939, she visited the city of Balchik on several occasions and completed a number of works, oils, and watercolors except for pencil drawings or sketches, befriending personalities such as Victor Brauner, Gellu Naum, Sașa Pană, Geo Bogza.
In 1939, the mayor of Balchik, Octavian Moşescu, invited her to exhibit her works alongside other artists in the city's school.
From 1940, she was forbidden to leave Bucharest and also to display any of her works due to the racial laws, and this was the moment when she refused to paint. In order to support herself she accepted a drawing teacher position for Hebrew Children School. Her students were the painters Maria Constantin and Yvonne Hasan, and also a poetess Nina Cassian and a journalist Sanda Faur.
Between 1940 and 1986, Dinu traveled and worked in various cities in Romania, Bulgaria and France. In 1954 she had a personal exhibition in Bucharest.
Her work remained largely unknown, until 2003, when she returned to her artistic life and took part in the "Senior contemporary painters of Romania" exhibition in Bucharest. In March 2008, she created the exhibition at Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest.
In February 2009, Medi displayed a centenary retrospective exhibit at the Romanian Foundation for Science and Art of the Romanian Academy.
On International Women's Day in 2016, her works from various periods were displayed as part of the exhibition "Ages of Youth" at the "House of Arts" Cultural Center in Bucharest. It was her last exhibition.
Medi Wechsler Dinu died on July 18, 2016, at the age of 107, at a Jewish nursing home in Bucharest, Romania.
Even though Medi Wechsler Dinu worked and befriended various personalities of the Romanian interbellum avant-garde, she did not approve nor understand their movement, claiming that it was disconnected from the past.
Personality
Medi Wechsler Dinu was the star of Hebrew Home for old people. She didn't lost her sense of humor and was responding "God forbid" to "Happy Birthday" wishes. At 106 years old she read every night and wondered if the characters she admired were happy.
Connections
She was married to a poet Stephan Roll (pen name - Gheorghe Dinu).