Background
Sorin Ilfoveanu was born on May 23, 1942, in Campulung, Romania.
Sorin Ilfoveanu with his friend and a co-founder of Ilfoveanu Cultural Foundation Gheorghe Badea
Strada Armand Călinescu 14, Pitești, Romania
Ion Brătianu National College
Calea Griviței 28, București, Romania
Bucharest National University of Arts
Strada Victoriei 9, Pitești 110016, Romania
Alexandru Davilla Theater
Palatul Ghica Tei, Strada Doamna Ghica 5, București, Romania
Ghika Tei Palace
Götaplatsen 6, 412 56 Göteborg, Sweden
Gothenburg Museum of Art
Sorin Ilfoveanu was born on May 23, 1942, in Campulung, Romania.
Sorin Ilfoveanu entered the Ion Brătianu National College in Pitești, Romania when he was eleven. He finished the high school in 1964. Among his classmates was a future Romanian poet Daniel Turcea.
The same year, Sorin became a student of the Bucharest National University of Arts and had pursued his education for six years under the tutelage of the painter Corneliu Baba. Ilfoveanu explored the art history taught by Eugen Schileru, anatomy by Gheorghe Ghitescu and engraving Simion Luca. The fellows of the young artist included Mihai Cismaru, Stefan Caltia, and Sorin Dumitrescu.
Sorin Ilfoveanu had a lot of exhibitions, both personal and group ones, since the beginning of his artistic journey at the end of the 1960s. The most part of the debut presentations was held in Romania, like in his native Pitești in 1968 (solo) and at the Astra Gallery in Bucharest the following year (group).
In 1970, Ilfoveanu in collaboration with Virgil Poleac founded the Museum of Art in Pitești. Four years later, he tried his hand along with Dan Broscauteanu and Stefan Câltia as a painter of frescoes – together, they produced a mural for the Alexandru Davilla Theater in the town. The similar project was the restoration of the Ghika Tei Palace in Bucharest in 1978 with Dan Broscauteanu and Elena Rosca.
As an active participant of cultural and artistic life of his native place, Sorin Ilfoveanu established in 1975 the Pitesti branch of the Romanian Artists Union.
Despite his cultural activity this period, the painter continued to produce his artworks and to present them to the audience whose amount increased due to the various festivals and symposiums abroad, like Voos-Bergen, Norway (1977), International Art Biennial in Venice, Italy (1978), Valparaiso Biennial, the Republic of Chile (1982), the International Festival of Painting at Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (1986), and the Art Olympics, in Seoul, Republic of Korea (1988). Among the personal shows outside of Romania were the one at the Marais gallery in Paris, France (1987).
The next decade was marked for the artist by the start of his teaching career. So, in 1992, Sorin Ilfoveanu established his painting camp at villa "Florica" in Ştefăneşti, Argeş which had functioned annually for six years. The same year, the artist became a chief of the painting department at the Bucharest National University of Arts and had held this post till 1996 when he was named a dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts. He dedicated four years to this activity. At the beginning of the new century, he headed the whole University.
The exhibitions of this period included the Romanian Cultural Centre in Vienna, Austria (1994), Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden (1995), Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates, the Tegnerfobundet Gallery, Oslo, Norway, both in 1997, and the National Museum of the Romanian Literature in Bucharest (1999, along with Ştefan Agapian and Adrian Ilfoveanu).
In 2000, Sorin Ilfoveanu added Denmark to the list of the countries where he had demonstrated his artworks – he participated at the group exhibition at the Jungersted & Brostrom Gallery, Copenhagen. The next year, Japanese public had a chance to see his creations at the MMG Gallery in Tokyo. The American debut of the artist took place in 2002 at the Littman & White Gallery, in Portland, Oregon, United States. Finally, Ilfoveanu exhibited his painting at the exposition organized in 2009 at the Rocca Paulina fortress, Perugia, Italy. During this period, the painter had also a lot of exhibitions in his native Romania.
Nowadays, Sorin Ilfoveanu lives and works in Bucharest and Rădeşti, Romania.
The Black Flower Girl
Saturnalia
Maenads 3
Untitled
Untitled
The Man with Cat and Dragonfly
Saturnalia
The Offering
The Bird Fancier
Maenads 2
Peasant
Untitled
The Table VIII
Portrait II
Untitled
Fallow Ground
Bed of Procust
Self-portrait with Cat
Portrait of a Friend
Portrait
The Florist with a Cat
Landscape (from White)
Florist
Musician
Wild Flowers
Still life with Purple Flowers, Cranberry and Virginia Tobacco
The Flower Woman
Fierce Winter
Still life with Pheasant and Nuts
End of Winter
Quotes from others about the person
"They (the landscapes) are “ideal windows” through which the artist’s imagined characters, or maybe just their ghosts - for the landscapes are unpopulated - come in and out whenever they desire, this freedom of halting and departing becoming, once more, a proof of Imaginarium’s limitlessness, over which master Ilfoveanu reigns just like a sovereign." Cristian-Robert Velescu, critic and art historian
"To write now, in 2013, about Sorin Ilfoveanu, is to delicately lay a new brick in the consolidated wall that is the exegesis of his established oeuvre. Great names of art critics and theoreticians – Andrei Plesu, Cristian-Robert Velescu, Aurelia Mocanu, Victor Neumann or of literature - Stefan Agopian – have searched and written monographic essays, or reflections on his exhibitions and artistic series in the last 30 years." Simona Vilau, curator, art writer and artist
Sorin Ilfoveanu is married to Ana Ruxandra Ilfoveanu, a Romanian painter. The couple has two sons whose names are Adrian Ilfoveanu and Nicu Ilfoveanu. They followed their parents' steps and chose artistic careers. The first one is a sculptor and the second works as a photographer.