Aida Tomescu facts for kids

Aida Tomescu (born in October 1955) is an Australian artist. She is famous for her abstract paintings, collages, drawings, and prints. Aida has won several important art awards. These include the Dobell Prize for Drawing, the Wynne Prize for Landscape, and the Sir John Sulman Prize. These awards are given by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Early Life and Learning

Aida Tomescu was born in October 1955 in Bucharest, Romania. She lived there until she was 23 years old. In May 1980, she moved to Australia.

She studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in the early 1970s. This school taught students how to create art. They learned about the structure and design of artworks. In 1977, she earned a diploma in painting. Two years later, she had her first art show. In 1983, she finished more studies at the City Art Institute in Sydney.

While studying in Bucharest, Aida became very interested in painting. She studied the work of Paul Cézanne and Cubism. She also read a famous essay by Wassily Kandinsky called Concerning the Spiritual in Art. When she moved to Australia, she decided to focus on abstract painting. She has continued to create abstract art ever since.

Her Art Career

Aida Tomescu's art slowly changed to become more abstract. She once said that in Australia, she started using bigger canvases. She needed to learn new ways to express herself through art.

Her artworks are inspired by many things. For example, she has studied old Italian artists like Giotto, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian. She learns how they built their paintings and the deep meanings in their work. Her art is also influenced by Paul Cézanne and Cubism. She also uses ideas from Kandinsky's book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art.

In 1986, Aida was invited to the Victorian Print Workshop. This place is now called the Australian Print Workshop. Aida always thought drawing was very important. She found working with etching plates exciting. It helped her to be less focused on being perfect. She loved how the acid changed her drawings. It made her art feel more open and free.

Today, Aida Tomescu's art is shown by Flowers Gallery and Jensen Gallery.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

Aida Tomescu had her first art show in Bucharest in 1979. It featured still-life paintings. Since then, she has had over 30 solo exhibitions. She shows her art often in Australia and other countries.

From 1985 to 1995, she had regular shows at the Coventry Gallery in Sydney. These shows featured her dark abstract paintings.

In 1994, an art collector named Chandler Coventry showed 300 prints he owned. This exhibition was called Obsession. It included 10 works by Aida Tomescu. An art critic said her work showed she was a top artist in gestural abstraction in Australia.

In 2009, a big exhibition of her work was held. It was called Aida Tomescu: Paintings and Drawings. It took place at the Drill Hall Gallery at the Australian National University. An art critic, John McDonald, admired her use of color and texture. He said her paintings had thick layers of paint. Her drawings were full of energetic lines. He found her work to be very lively and powerful.

Her drawings and prints were also shown in a major exhibition. This show was called Out of Australia. It was held at the British Museum in London in 2011.

Aida Tomescu's art was part of another big touring exhibition. This show was called Abstraction: Celebrating Australian Women Abstract Artists. It traveled from 2017 to 2019. It was organized by the National Gallery of Australia.

Other important exhibitions include:

• The Triumph of Modernism at TarraWarra Museum of Art
• Art Basel Hong Kong (in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019)
• 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)
• Contemporary Encounters, Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria (2010)

Awards and Special Projects

Aida Tomescu has won many awards for her art:

• Sir John Sulman Prize, 1996 (for her painting Grey to Grey)
• The Wynne Prize, 2001
• The Dobell Prize for Drawing, 2003
• She won the first LFSA Arts 21 Fellowship at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne in 1996.
• She also had a special residency at the Victorian Print Workshop in 1986.

Art Collections

Aida Tomescu's artworks are held in many important art collections around the world:

• National Gallery of Australia (71 works, including Seria Unu I-IV (1993), Ithaca II (1999), Alba II (2002), Phosphor II (2005), A long line in the sand III (2021), and Ithaca V (1997))
• National Gallery of Victoria (9 works, including Oz and Seria Unu III)
• 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))
• Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (Zattere/Margharita)
• British Museum, London (11 works, including Ithaca I- X (1997) and Untitled (1988))
• QAGOMA (2 works, Semn (1990), and Vis 1, Vis 2, Vis 3)
• Art Gallery of South Australia