Background
Alexandru Ciucurencu was born on September 27, 1903, in Tulcea, Dobruja, Romania.
Alexandru Ciucurencu was born on September 27, 1903, in Tulcea, Dobruja, Romania.
Ciucurencu studied in Bucharest with Camil Ressu at the School of Fine Arts from 1921 to 1928. He also studied at the Academie Julian, working in his spare time in the studio of Andre Lhote from 1931 – 1932.
Arriving in France in 1931, Ciucurencu discovered the effervescent atmosphere of the capital, housing some of the most diverse forms of artistic manifestation. With a natural calling for colouring, Ciucurencu focused on the movements that highlighted a concern for colour, i.e. Impressionism, Post-impressionism and Fauvism, which, although outdated at the time, could still provide him with relevant knowledge.
The first solo exhibition in 1934, at the Mozart Hall, was followed by constant participations at the Official Salon and other individual exhibitions, which let art critics to admit Ciucurencu at the forefront of his generation. The works created during his first period featured his interest for obtaining a refined pictorial effect, by the use of tones in thin and transparent layers, as well as the tendency to invest the colour with the ability to contain the shape.
After the 1946 - 1947 period, painting starts to fall within the coordinates of socialist realism, demonstrating a special concern for monumental composition and for a thematic inspired by the history of the people, industrial landscapes and scenes of labour in factories and on the fields.
Returned to Bucharest, he became professor in 1948, and then rector (1957-1968) at the "Nicolae Grigorescu" Fine Arts Institute (now, the National University of Arts in Bucharest).
Alexandru Ciucurencu was a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy.
