Background

Kazar was born in Sighet, Romania, on July 30, 1913, into a wealthy family of Hebrew intellectuals.

Education

After Vasile Kazar's graduation from high school in his hometown, he was supported by his family to continue his studies in Baia Mare, Budapest, and then at the Academie Grande Chaumière in Paris.

Career

Kazar started his career with the creation of illustrations in the early 1930s. He produced them for such left-wing magazines as Stânga and Cuvântul liber. In 1932 he had a solo exhibition in Cluj. In 1937 Vasile Kazar published in Oradea the album Pita de mălai (Corn bread). The album includes 12 drawings of the peasant life of Maramureş. These works were exhibited next year at the Contemporary Art Galleries in Paris.

In 1944 Vasile Kazar was deported to Nazi concentration camps. There he lost his parents. Between 1950 and 1976 he worked as a lecturer at the Department of Graphic Arts of the Institute "Nicolae Grigorescu" in Bucharest (now the Bucharest National University of Arts).

From the late 1940s until 1958 Vasile Kazar tried to adapt to the aesthetic and ideological principles of Socialist Realism. But at the beginning of the 1960s, he turned back to the Expressionism that characterized his work of 1945-1947. Kazar developed this style during the 1970s and 1980s. It was obvious in such series of drawings as Apparitions at the Old Court and From my Bestiary.

He later evolved a very sophisticated use of colour, which became much harsher. He left behind a valuable set of works that included cycles of illustrations, such as those for Duin elegies. Sonnets to Orpheus written by Reiner Maria Rilke, The Old Court Kings by Mateiu Caragiale or for the poems of Catullus. In 1992 the artist donated 103 drawings, 7 prints and 6 sketchbooks to the Museum of Art in Bucharest.

Achievements

• Vasile Kazar was a prominent artist of the 20th century. He was notable for his artworks. Nowadays, hundreds of his drawings are the pride of private galleries and collections around the world. Several paintings by the artist have been sold at auction, including Parental home, which was sold at Artmark "Black & White Auction" in 2011.
  
  Kazar left by legacy a small museum in a house of the eighteenth century, with antiques and textiles, in Vadu Izei, Maramureş, which is today a Memorial Museum.

Works

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  • Window Towards Insomnia (5)

  • Window Towards Insomnia (4)

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  • Fiddlers at Wedding

  • Illustration for Catul's Poems

  • Window Towards Insomnia (3)

  • The Song

  • Balance

  • Dance on the Drum

  • Window Towards Insomnia (1)

  • Window Towards Insomnia (2)

  • Dawn Without Awning

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  • Presentation at the Old Court

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  • Dialogue with the Chimera

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  • Untitled

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Personality

Vasile Kazar was a Holocaust survivor.