Aida Tomescu

{{short description|Romanian-born Australian contemporary artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Aida Tomescu | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1955|10|03}} | birth_place = Bucharest, Romania | death_date = | death_place = | field = Painting, drawing, contemporary art | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = 2003 Dobell Prize for Drawing <br />2001 Wynne Prize<br />1996 Sir John Sulman Prize | elected = | website = {{URL|http://aidatomescu.com|Aida Tomescu}} }}

'''Aida Tomescu''' (born October 1955) is an Australian contemporary artist<ref name=":3">{{cite book|last1=McCaughey|first1=Patrick|title=Strange country : why Australian painting matters|date=2014|publisher=Miegunyah Press|location=Carlton, Victoria|isbn=9780522861204}}</ref><ref>McCulloch, Alan; & McCulloch, Susan. Encyclopedia of Australian art. 1994 St Leonards, NSW : Allen & Unwin (3rd revised edition), pp. 703–704.</ref> who is known for her abstract paintings, collages, drawings and prints. Tomescu is a winner of the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the Wynne Prize for Landscape and the Sir John Sulman Prize, by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-10-24|title=McCubbin: Last Impressions & Aida Tomescu|url=https://www.johnmcdonald.net.au/2009/mccubbin-last-impressions-aida-tomescu/|access-date=2020-08-06|website=John McDonald}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Stephens|first=Andrew|date=2014-12-12|title=Australian painters are still the stars of the art scene|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/australian-painters-are-still-the-stars-of-the-art-scene-20141204-11zjqj.html|access-date=2020-08-06|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Archived copy|url=http://www.artcollector.net.au/Assets/358/1/36_tomescu.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330061703/http://www.artcollector.net.au/Assets/358/1/36_tomescu.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-30|access-date=2015-12-05}}</ref><ref name=":4">Pearce, Barry. '100 Moments in Australian Painting', 2014, NewSouth Publishing, in association with the Art Gallery of NSW</ref>

== Early life and education == Tomescu was born in October 1955 in Bucharest, Romania where she lived until age 23. She arrived in Australia one year later, in May 1980. She studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in the early 1970s. The Institute in Bucharest provided its students with academic training focusing on the structure, composition, and overall approach to making works (Hart, 2006, 10).<ref name=":3" /> In 1977 she graduated with a diploma in painting and two years later she had her first solo exhibition. In 1983 she completed a post-graduate diploma in visual arts at the City Art Institute in Sydney.

''The seed of her career as a painter became planted in Aida Tomescu while studying at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in the late 1970's, when she closely studied the work of Cezanne and his legacy through cubism. She read Kandinsky's famous essay, 'Concerning the spiritual in art' ... When she emigrated to Australia from Romania and took up study at the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1980 she was ripe for a dedication to abstract painting from which she never wavered'' (Barry Pearce ' 100 moments of Australian painting' 2014, page 216).

== Career == Tomescu's work gradually evolved towards abstraction. Tomescu said: "One of the first things that happened here is that I bought bigger canvases, I increased the scale. Though I was continuing as a painter, I needed a whole new vocabulary, and this would only develop gradually."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2017-08-30|title=Aida Tomescu|url=http://www.artistprofile.com.au/aida-tomescu/|access-date=2020-08-16|website=artistprofile.com.au}}</ref> Tomescu's works are influenced by a variety of sources. For example, in an interview with Tomescu in February 2020, Angela Goddard wrote that Tomescu's "in depth knowledge and intimate study of art history- she explores the way Proto and Early Renaissance Italian artists, Giotto and Fra Angelico, through to Renaissance painters Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Bellini and Titan construct their paintings and the rich content of their work" as influential on Tomescu's painting (Goddard, February, 2020). Her work has also been informed by Paul Cézanne and cubism, and the ideas of Wassily Kandinsky expressed in his 1910 book ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''.<ref name=":1" />

In 1986 Tomescu was invited to the Victorian Print Workshop, now the Australian Print Workshop. As an artist who regarded drawing as an important part of her practice, she found the experience of working with etching plates liberating as she had to "curb any craving for precision and for controlling an image". At the same time, Tomescu "loved its transformative powers over my drawing, the way in which it liberated my drawing in the acid tray. Materiality was removed entirely by the acid, so I was left with an image that is really vulnerable, open."<ref name=":2" />

Tomescu is represented by Flowers Gallery and Jensen Gallery.

==Exhibitions==

Tomescu held her first exhibition "based on still-life" in 1979, in Bucharest.<ref name=":2" /> She has exhibited regularly in Australia and internationally, with over 30 solo exhibitions to date.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aida Tomescu|url=https://aidatomescu.com/|access-date=2020-10-27|website=aidatomescu.com}}</ref>

From 1985 to 1995, she was exhibiting at the Coventry Gallery, Sydney with "regular solo shows of her dark abstract paintings".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collections Online|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG83493|access-date=2020-08-16|website=British Museum}}</ref>

In 1987 Tomescu exhibited in Canberra at the Ben Grady Gallery. Sasha Grishin, senior art critic for ''The Canberra Times'' found her work to be in "a bit of a time warp" back to a time when abstract expressionism was the "dominant style" and the challenge for the artist would be, after "redisovering" abstract expressionism, to "build on it and create their own unique style".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1987-09-04|title=ART Back to the days of abstract expressionism|page=10|work=The Canberra Times|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122119979|access-date=2020-08-16|via=Trove}}</ref>

In 1991, a smaller version of the Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition ''Abstraction'' was shown at the Nolan Gallery, Lanyon ACT. Art critic Sonia Barron, writing for ''The Canberra Times'', was disappointed in the exhibition but found at least that Tomescu communicated "a spiritual anxiety in her dark expressionist canvases".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1991-02-16|title=Abstracted collection Incomplete|page=5|work=The Canberra Times|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129097193|access-date=2020-08-16|via=Trove}}</ref>

In 1994, the art collector and art gallery owner Chandler Coventry showed a collection of 300 prints he had acquired in the exhibition ''Obsession''. The diverse collection of works included 10 works by Aida Tomescu and art critic Sasha Grishin remarked that her work "places her as one of the leading exponents of gestural abstraction in this country".<ref>{{Cite news|date=1994-05-21|title=ARTS|page=49|work=The Canberra Times|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118213053|access-date=2020-08-16|via=Trove}}</ref>

In 2009 her work was the subject of a major survey exhibition, ''Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings'' at the Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aida Tomescu: Paintings And Drawings|url=https://dhg.anu.edu.au/events/aida-tomescu-paintings-and-drawings/|access-date=2020-08-06|website=Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University}}</ref><ref>Grishin, Sasha. "Power in the Individual Vision", ''The Canberra Times'', 20 October 2009</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web|author=McDonald, John|url=http://johnmcdonald.net.au/2009/mccubbin-last-impressions-aida-tomescu/|date=2009-10-24|title=Mccubbin: Last impressions & Aida Tomescu|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> Art critic John McDonald expressed admiration for Tomescu's "sense of colour and surface texture". He referred to the paint being laid on in "concrete-like slabs" with the works on paper consisting of a "frenzied mass of squiggles and disjointed calligraphy" and found the body of work "alive and convincing".<ref name=":0" />

Tomescu's graphic works were included in the major survey of prints and drawings ''Out of Australia'' at the British Museum, London in 2011.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=138446|title = Collections Online|website=British Museum}}</ref>

Tomescu's work was included in a major touring exhibition, ''Abstraction: Celebrating Australian Women Abstract Artists,'' a touring exhibition (2017–2019) from the National Gallery of Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Abstraction: celebrating Australian women abstract artists|url=https://nga.gov.au/abstraction/default.cfm|access-date=2020-08-16|website=National Gallery of Australia}}</ref>

Other exhibitions include ''The Triumph of Modernism'' at TarraWarra Museum of Art,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9591122/no-lemons-here/| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924105115/http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9591122/no-lemons-here/| archive-date = 2015-09-24| title = No lemons here - The Spectator}}</ref> Art Basel Hong Kong (2019, 2018, 2017 & 2015), ''Wet, Wet, Wet,'' Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2019) ''The Anatomy of Gesture,'' Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2017); ''Chromoffection'', Fox Jensen McCrory Auckland (2016), 'The Heide Collection’, Heide Museum of Modern Art (2015); ''Vibrant Matter,'' TarraWarra Museum of Art (2013), ''The Mind’s Eye'', Art Gallery of South Australia (2013), ''Forever Young'', Heide Museum of Modern Art (2011), and ''Contemporary Encounters'', Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria (2010).

== Critical reception == Australian art historian Patrick McCaughey writes of Tomescu in his 2014 book ''Strange Country: Why Australian Painting Matters'': <blockquote>[One] of the best painters at work in Australia today, Aida Tomescu has revived a full-throated painterly abstraction, where colour and gesture flow through the work...she knits over and under surfaces in which the light and colour seem to be pulsing from within the work, not just laid on top. You feel her presence and her sensibility, moment to moment on the surface, in the painting.<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>

Art critic for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' John McDonald wrote on August 25, 2012:

<blockquote>Aida Tomescu, who is consolidating a reputation as one of Australia's most formidable living abstract painters...is making the point that she is not interested in arbitrary "mark-making" — she is after something she calls an "image". Even though most people might associate this word with a recognisable object, Tomescu's image is very different. It seems closer to the image of Christ or the Virgin in Byzantine art, which was meant to embody the presence of the holy being in the work.<ref name=":5">McDonald, John. "Wild and Wondrous", Spectrum, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', August 25, 2012</ref><ref>McDonald, John. "Pathways to other worlds", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 1 September 2007</ref></blockquote>

Christopher Allen in ''Art in Australia from Colonization to Postmodernism'' wrote:

<blockquote>"Aida Tomescu’s paintings…draws us into the intense concentration of its own making…(she) starts with energy and movement and seems to be trying to do the near-impossible — to reach stillness from such a starting-point."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Christopher|author-link=Christopher Allen (critic)|title=Art in Australia from Colonization to Postmodernism|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1997|location=New York}}</ref></blockquote>

== Awards and commissions == * Sir John Sulman Prize, 1996 (''Grey to Grey'')<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sir John Sulman Prize finalists 1996|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/sulman/1996/|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}}</ref> * The Wynne Prize, 2001<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wynne Prize finalists 2001 :: Art Gallery NSW|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/wynne/2001/|access-date=2020-08-16|website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}}</ref> * The Dobell Prize for Drawing, 2003<ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-11|title=Artist lights up drawing prize|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/artist-lights-up-drawing-prize-20030911-gdhdfs.html|access-date=2020-08-16|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> * Winner of the inaugural LFSA Arts 21 Fellowship at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, 1996, Melbourne<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aida Tomescu|url=https://www.jensengallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AIDA-TOMESCU-CV-1.pdf|website=jensengallery}}</ref> * Victorian Print Workshop residency, Myer Art Foundation, 1986<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sullivan+Strumpf|date=2017|title=Eyes in the heat: Exhibition catalogue|url=https://www.sullivanstrumpf.com.au/assets/Uploads/exhibition-assets/eyes-in-the-heat-2/Aida-Tomescu.2015.WebVersion.pdf|access-date=27 October 2020|website=Sullivan+Strumpf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-10-16|title=Aida Tomescu: Painting as process|url=https://artcollector.net.au/aida-tomescu-painting-as-process/|access-date=2020-10-27|website=Art Collector Magazine}}</ref>

==Collections== * National Gallery of Australia (71 works, including but not limited to, "Seria Unu I-IV" 1993, ''Ithaca II'' 1999, ''Alba II'' 2002, and "Phosphor II" 2005, ''A long line in the sand III'' 2021) <ref>{{Cite web|last=Tomescu|first=Aida Loane|title=Alba II|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=171239|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}}</ref> and ''Ithaca V'' 1997)<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tomescu|first=Aida Loane|title=Ithaca V|url=https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=163518|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Item held by National Gallery of Australia}}</ref> * National Gallery of Victoria (9 works, including but not limited to, ''Oz'' and ''Seria Unu'' III)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aida TOMESCU {{!}} Artists {{!}} NGV|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/1717/|access-date=2020-08-24|website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au}}</ref> * Art Gallery of New South Wales (27 works, including ''Neagru I''(1991), ''Seria Unu I-IV''(1993), ''Grey to Grey''(1995), ''Ithaca I-X''(1997),''Seria Neagra I-IV''(1999), ''Patru II'' (1999), ''Marea Neagra'' (2002), ''Negru I, III, IV'' (2002), ''Aqua Alta'' (2008), and ''Sewn onto Stones in the Sky'' (2019) )<ref>{{Cite web|title=Works by Aida Tomescu :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?images=y&artist_id=tomescu-aida|access-date=2020-08-24|website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au}}</ref> *Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (''Zattere/Margharita'')<ref>{{Cite web|title=Zattere/Margherita|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/16096/zatteremargherita|access-date=2020-08-27|website=Auckland Art Gallery}}</ref> * British Museum, London (11 works, including ''Ithaca I- X'' (1997) and ''Untitled'' (1988) )<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collections Search – Tomescu|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Tomescu|access-date=2020-08-27|website=British Museum}}</ref> * QAGOMA (2 works, ''Semn'' 1990, and ''Vis'' 1, ''Vis'' 2, ''Vis'' 3)<ref>{{Cite web|title=QAGOMA search: Aida Tomescu|url=https://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/qag/imu.php?request=display&port=45000&id=7e82&flag=start&offset=0&sort=creatortitleaccno&count=20&view=lightbox&PublishOnIMuInternet=Y&value1=Aida%20Tomescu&column1=creatorculture|access-date=2020-09-03}}</ref> * Art Gallery of South Australia<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017|title=AGSA Annual Report 2017|url=https://agsa-stg.s3.amazonaws.com/media/dd/files/AGSA_Annual_Report_2012_2013.3b43f93.pdf|page=29}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}} The Gallery of South Australia Magazine: Issue 52 Spring 2023.

==Further reading== * Payes, Sonia, Untitled. Portraits of Australian Artists, published by Macmillan Art Publishing, 2007. * Hart, Deborah, Catalogue essay: "Aida Tomescu: States of becoming", in ''Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings'', Drill Hall Gallery, 2009 * https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5399721 * Hammond, Bradley, Catalogue essay: "Two Worlds" exhibition catalogue for Orange Regional Gallery, 2021. * Hynes, Victoria. "Aida Tomescu: Unfolding Presence", in Art Almanac, 8 December 2021. https://www.art-almanac.com.au/aida-tomescu-unfolding-presence/ * Creswell Bell, Amber, "Australian Abstract", published by Thames and Hudson, 2023. https://thamesandhudson.com/australian-abstract-9781760762858

== External links == * [https://aidatomescu.com Aida Tomescu's official website] * [https://www.jensengallery.com/aida-tomescu/ Artist profile, Fox Jensen/Fox Jensen McCrory Gallery]

{{Portal bar|Biography|The arts}} {{authority control|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomescu, Aida}} Category:Living people Category:1955 births Category:Artists from Bucharest Category:Romanian emigrants to Australia Category:Australian women painters Category:21st-century Australian women artists Category:21st-century Australian painters Category:20th-century Australian women artists Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:20th-century women painters Category:21st-century women painters Category:Women's Art Register artists