Natalia Dumitresco & Alexandre Istrati

NATALIA DUMITRESCO/ALEXANDRE ISTRATI

NATALIA DUMITRESCO ALEXANDRE ISTRATI JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street | Abilene, TX 79601 | 325.670.9880 [email protected] | www.jodyklotz.com

NATALIA DUMITRESCO

Natalia Dumitresco, born in Bucharest, Romania in 1915, was a French-Romanian abstract painter associated with the Réalités Nouvelles salon of Paris after World War II, a movement influenced by the art of Wassily Kandinsky and Alberto Magnelli. Other abstract expressionist painters associated with the Réalités Nouvelles include Serge Poliakoff and Alexandre Istrati. Dumitresco received her diploma from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1939, the same year she and Alexandre Istrati were married. From 1940 to 1947, she worked and exhibited in Romania. In 1946, she had her own dedicated exhibition at Sala Dalles in Bucharest. Because of a French grant in 1947, Dumitresco and her husband Istrati moved to Paris. They soon befriended the legendary sculptor Constantin Brancusi, himself a displaced Romanian. At his request, the couple moved into a studio next door to his at 11 Impasse Ronsin in the XVth arrondisement of Paris. They worked for Brancusi for nine years until his death in 1957. Istrati and Dumitresco were named the legal executors of his will. Together with his wife, Istrati reorganized the “studio Brancusi” in the Pompidou Center in Paris, dedicated in 1977, as a wing of this illustrious museum. Istrati moved with Dumitresco in 1958 from l’Impasse Ronsin to 18 Rue Sauvageot, where they built their ateliers on a property left to them by Brancusi. They both became naturalized French citizens in 1965. Dumitresco’s style of painting followed the movement of the post–war trends that evolved in the School of Paris circle. Beginning in 1952, Dumitresco won many prestigious awards, including one from the group Espace in 1952, the Kandinsky Award in 1955, the Prix des Amateurs et Collectionneurs d’Art in 1957, and the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh in 1959. This early period in the 1950s is the finest of Dumitresco’s and will further be explored by historians and collectors in the future as this school of painting is more critically reviewed.

Bleu, 1960 Oil on canvas 25 ⅜ x 31 ⅞ inches 27 ½ x 33 ¼ inches framed Signed lower left: N. Dumitresco

Composition, 1956 China ink drawing, gouache and felt pen on paper 9 x 6 ¼ inches 19 x 16 ¼ inches framed Signed and dated upper right: N. Dumitresco 1956

Composition, circa 1959 Composition, circa 1959 Gouache and black China ink on cartonette Gouache and China ink on paper 15 x 4 ¾ inches 12 ⅝ x 8 ¼ inches 25 x 14 ½ inches framed 24 x 19 ⅝ inches framed Signed upper right: N. Dumitresco Signed lower right: N Dumitresco

Composition, 1963 Mixed technique on paper 22 x 15 inches 34 x 26 ½ inches framed Signed and dated lower right: N. Dumitresco 1963

Composition abstraite, 1952 Oil on canvas 28 ¾ x 24 inches 35 ¾ x 30 ⅝ inches framed Signed and dated on reverse

Composition abstraite, circa 1957 Oil on canvas 31 ⅞ x 45 ⅝ inches Signed lower right: N. Dumitresco

Composition en noire China ink drawing on canson paper 13 x 4 inches 22 ¾ x 14 inches framed Signed lower left: N. Dumitresco

Galaxie, 1959 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 ¼ inches 36 x 43 ¼ inches framed Signed upper left: N. Dumitresco

On Me Fait Signe, 1964 Oil on canvas 36 ¼ x 28 ¾ inches 38 ¼ x 30 ¾ inches framed Signed lower right: N. Dumitresco

Sans titre, 1959 Gouache on paper 11 ¼ x 15 ½ inches 19 x 23 ½ inches framed Signed and dated lower right: Natalia Dumitresco 59

ALEXANDRE ISTRATI

Alexandre Istrati was born in Romania in 1915. At the early age of nine he began to paint, but decided to study law at the University of Bucharest from 1932-1937. In 1938, Istrati received his diploma from the Art Academy of Bucharest, where he acted as professor until 1947. He married the Romanian painter Natalia Dumitresco in 1939. Istrati received many awards for his work in Bucharest. He obtained the Prize of the “Salon Officiel” and the Prize of the Musée Simu in Bucharest in 1941. He participated in painting exhibitions in Bucharest from 1941 through 1946. Because of a French grant in 1947, Istrati and his wife were able to move to Paris where they definitively established themselves. Istrati studied at the atelier of French cubist André Lhote and at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. Istrati and Dumitresco befriended the legendary sculptor Constantini Brancusi, himself a displaced Romanian. At his request, the couple moved into a studio next door to his at 11 Impasse Ronsin in the XVth arrondisement of Paris. They worked for Brancusi for nine years, until his death in 1957. Istrati and Dumitresco were named the legal executors of his will. Together with his wife, Istrati reorganized the “studio Brancusi” in the Pompidou Center in Paris, dedicated in 1977, as a wing of this illustrious museum. Istrati moved with Dumitresco in 1958 from l’Impasse Ronsin to 18 Rue Sauvageot, where they built their ateliers on a property left to them by Brancusi. They both became naturalized French citizens in 1965. Istrati’s pictures are colorful and romantic. They open a world of sounds and colors. What appears chaotic is a passionate growth of the colors. Sometimes the color swabs sit easily like powder on the canvas, other times they are sucked in with the movement of the composition. He received the Kandinsky Prize in 1953. In 1955, he participated in the Prize Lissone in Milan, and in 1957 in the Carnegie Institute Exhibition in Pittsburg. He was Member of the Comité du Salon d’Octobre in Paris from 1952-53, Member of the Comité du Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris from 1955 to 1965, and Member of the Comité du Salon Comparaisons in Paris from 1965 onwards.

Composition Bleue, 1951 Oil on canvas 39 ⅜ x 31 ⅞ inches 46 ¼ x 38 ¾ inches framed Signed lower left: A. Istrati

Composition Orange, 1951 Oil on canvas 51 ⅛ x 38 ⅛ inches 59 ½ x 46 inches framed Signed lower right: A. Istrati

Composition Verte, 1956 Oil on canvas 39 ⅜ x 31 ⅞ inches 46 ¼ x 39 inches framed Signed lower left: A. Istrati

Sans Titre, 1950 Oil on canvas 35 x 51 ⅛ inches Signed lower right: A. Istrati

Sans Titre, 1951 Oil on canvas 39 ⅜ x 28 ¾ inches 46 ¼ x 35 ¾ inches framed Signed lower right: A. Istrati

NATALIA DUMITRESCO/ALEXANDRE ISTRATI

JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street| Abilene, TX 79601| 325.670.9880 [email protected] | www.jodyklotz.com