Alexandre Istrati – Wikipedia

Alexandre Istrati (Born March 9, 1915 in Dorohoi, Romania, † October 28, 1991 in Paris) was a Romanian-French painter and representative of the Nouvelle École de Paris, the Informel and the lyrical abstraction.

Istrati started painting at the age of nine. From 1932 to 1937 he completed a law studies at the University of Bucharest, which he completed in 1937 with the “Diploma de Licență” (BA). At the same time, he studied painting at Camil Ressu and received the diploma at the Bucharest art academy in 1938, where he taught as a professor until 1947. In 1939 he married the Romanian painter Natalia Dumitresco, a student of Franz Sirató at the same academy. From 1941 to 1946 he exhibited his work, especially in Bucharest.

Istrati and Dumitresco received a scholarship for further studies through the mediation of the French Institute of Bucharest from the French state ^[first] , So in 1947 he and his wife were able to move to Paris, where they arrived at Gare de Lyon on October 9.

Via Georges Théodorescu, a Romanian scholarship holder for sculpture, the couple met the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși on October 19, 1947. On his proposal, they moved into a studio next to his in the Ronsin Impass. In the time of their studies at André Lhote and on the École des Beaux-Art, they visited the sculptor every Sunday. The friendly cooperation had existed until his death in 1957. They became his sole heirs and built in 1958 on a property left behind ^[2] A separate studio. In 1965 Istrati and his wife received French citizenship. At the beginning of the 1960s, Istrati and Dumitresco developed a friendly closeness to Heinz Fuchs, director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim and the family of Margarete Lauter. ^[3] The Gallery Lauter has been promoting since 1965/66 ^[4] Through numerous individual and group exhibitions ^[5] Both artists and made their works known in the German cultural area. ^[6]

Gravestone on the Cimetière Montparnasse by Constantin Brâncuși, Natalia Dumitresco and Alexandre Istrati

As a universal Brâncușis, the couple handed over the works of his studio to the French state. With his wife, Istrati planned a reconstruction of the Brancusi Atelier in the Center Georges Pompidou, which was inaugurated in 1977. ^[7] Together with Pontus Hultén, they wrote a biography of their friend Brâncuși, which was published in 1986.

The couple Natalia Dumitresco and Alexandre Istrati, like Constantin Brâncuși, found its final resting place in the Montparnasse cemetery. A common tombstone bears their three names. ^[8]

In the 40s and early 1950s, Istrati developed a painting that is built on a compositional scaffolding made of compact color shapes and whose areas surrounded by lines are painted in an impressionistic mode. A similar image view can be found in Serge Poliakoff, for example, with which Istrati was friends and, like Istrati, which is attributed to École de Paris. Under the impression of American abstract Expressionism and the Drip Painting by Jackson Pollock, Istrati begins to consistently dissolve forms in his painting. Line abbreviations, tachist brush guidance and gestural flow forms are now increasingly determining the painting area. The colors are becoming increasingly darker, more spatial. At the end of the 1950s, Istrati then developed a dualistic painting principle that should remain decisive for the next few decades. It now increasingly arranges its image structure from linear elements, forms or open line formations, which always enter a competition with lyrical color zones and flowing colored areas. This creates compositions that can best be defined as lyrical color worlds in a certain colorality. Depending on the brightness and color choice, this creates optically positive or atmospheric visual worlds. Some pictures are reminiscent of natural organisms or biological forms of growth. In the 1960s and 1970s, the color palette became brighter in its pictures. In addition to brown, green and yellow tones, glowing red, yellow and blue tones were added, combined with the increasing use of geometric or constructive form elements. This extended color and shape scale remained istratis vocabulary up to his last works.

• 1939: The official salon , Bucharest
• 1953: Prix Kandinsky , Paris
• 1957: Lissone , Milan
• 1957: Carnegie . Pittsburgh

• Natalia Dumitresco, Alexandre Istrati : Kunsthalle Mannheim, January 26th to February 24th, 1963.
• Pontus Hulten, Natalia Dumitresco, Alexandre Istrati: Brancusi , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-608-76226-4
• 20 Rerties of Natalia Dumberscents 715-1997 ; 18 works by Alexandre Istrati, 1915–1991 . Drouot Richelieu, 6. Juli 1999
• Michel Seuphor, Dictionary of abstract painting , Paris, 1957 ^[9]
• Alexandre Istrati : Gallery Margarete Lauter, Mannheim, March 11 to April 13, 1966. OCLC 997380822 ^[ten]
• Eugène Ionesco: Alexandre Istrati , Gallery Daniel Gervis, Paris 1968 ^[11]
• Alexandre Istrati , Cavalero gallery, Cannes 1969
• Alexandre Istrati. Pictures, drawings and graphics , Gallery Lauter, Mannheim, June 6 to July 31, 1975. OCLC 60089769 ^[twelfth]
• Natalia Dumitresco: Perintures 1950-1987; Alexandre Istrati: Perintures 1954-1987 , Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris September 16-October 16, 87. ^[13]

1. ↑ Pontus Hultén, Natalia Dumitresco, Alexandre Istrati: Brancusi , Clat-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986, P. 239
2. ↑ 18, rue Sauvageot, 75014 Paris
3. ↑ In many conversations and friendly encounters, the son of Margarete and Harro Lauter and later museum director, Rolf Lauter, was able to gain essential insights into the work positions of the artists and the work philosophy of Brâncuși.
4. ↑ Alexandre Istrati. Retrieved on March 1st, 2020 .
5. ↑ Gallery Lauter: Alexandre Istrati. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 .
6. ↑ So also at various art fairs. Art Facts: Gallery Lauter. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 .
7. ↑ Catalog Georges Pompidou Center , Paris 1981, Katalog Decorative Arts Museum , Paris 1987: Alexandre Istrati. galeriehilt, accessed on October 16, 2009 .
8. ↑ Photo of the tombstone
9. ↑ Michel Seuphor: Abstract art dictionary. Worldcat.org, Retrieved on February 11, 2020 .
10. ↑ Gallery Margarete Lauter: Alexandre Istrati . Manheim 1966 ( Online [accessed on February 11, 2020]).
11. ↑ Eugène Ionesco: Alexandre Istrati. Worldcat.org, Retrieved on February 11, 2020 (French).
12. ↑ Rolf Lauter: Alexandre Istrati. Gallery Lauter, Retrieved on February 11, 2020 .
13. ↑ Museum of Decorative Arts (HRSG.): Alexandre Istrati: Peintures 1954-1987 . Paris, “278-298-297222-04-4.