Traian Stefan Boicescu

AWARDS
1998 The First Prize, The Festival of Students' Art and Creation-Bucharest
2000, 2002 Excelence Prize, Cultural Foundation Vâlcea1
2000 Honorary Diploma, Anton Pann Cultural Society, Râmnicu Vâlcea
2002 "Man of the Year 2002", The American Biographical Institute Board of International Research
2004 National Order Cultural Merit, "Commandor of Arts", awarded by the President of Romania
2005 International Peace Prize, awarded by The United Cultural Convention of USA
2006 Prize for Haute-Lisse Tapestry of the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania at the Textile Art Triennal, 5th edition Bucharest
2007 Cultural Foundation Vâlcea1- "Constantin Iliescu" Prize for Excelence

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born in Râmnicu Vâlcea, 1957; visual artist and has a passion for
tapestry, painting, graphic arts and ceramics
www.traianboicescu.ro

EDUCATION AND TRAINING
1989 A graduate of the Academy of Art of Bucharest, Faculty of Decorative Arts and Design
2006 Master's Degree in Management,”Constantin Brâncoveanu” University

MEMBERSHIPS
Member of: The Union of Professional Artists of Romania,
International Association of Art AIAP-UNESCO, Copyright VISARTA,
Maison Culturelle Belgo-Roumaine Brussels-Belgium, MCBR,
International Society for Education Through Art INSEA.

AWARDS
1998 The First Prize, The Festival of Students' Art and Creation-Bucharest
2000, 2002 Excelence Prize, Cultural Foundation Vâlcea1
2000 Honorary Diploma, Anton Pann Cultural Society, Râmnicu Vâlcea
2002 "Man of the Year 2002", The American Biographical Institute Board of International Research
2004 National Order Cultural Merit, "Commandor of Arts", awarded by the President of Romania
2005 International Peace Prize, awarded by The United Cultural Convention of USA
2006 Prize for Haute-Lisse Tapestry of the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania at the Textile Art Triennal, 5th edition Bucharest
2007 Cultural Foundation Vâlcea1- "Constantin Iliescu" Prize for Excelence


PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS (selection)
1979, 1982, 1996, 2001 Artex Gallery Râmnicu Vâlcea Romania
1999-2005 M.C.B. Gallery Arthis, Brussels Belgium
2000 House of Arts Gallery, Bucharest
2000 Neupre Gallery, Namur Belgium
2001 C.C René Magritte Gallery, Lessines Belgium
2003 Cozia Gallery, Hamme-Belgium, Halles Gallery Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium
2004 Romania's Diplomatic Mission to the European Community Brussels Belgium
2005, 2008 Schaerbeek Cultural Centre Brussels Belgium

NATIONAL GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
1989G Graduation Salon: Ceramics Museum Bucharest
1989-2011 County Salon, Artex Gallery, Râmnicu Vâlcea
1989 Festival of Students' Art, Dalles Gallery, Bucharest; Youth Biennal, Dalles Gallery, Bucharest Decorative Arts Quadriennal, Dalles Gallery, Bucharest
1990 Youth Salon, National Theatre, Bucharest
1991 Salon of Decorative Arts, National Theatre, Bucharest
1993 Youth Salon, National Theatre, Bucharest; National Salon of Decorative Arts, National Museum of Cotroceni, Bucharest
1994 Tapestry Triennal, Parliament Palace, “Constantin Brâncuşi” Room Bucharest
1996 Tapestry Salon, Museum of Contemporary Art, Galați; Moldavia Salon, Art Museum, Bacău
1997-1998 South Salon, Art Museum, Râmnicu Vâlcea
2000 Artists from Vâlcea, Parliament Palace, Constantin Brâncuşi Room, Bucharest
2002-2008, 2012 Ion Andreescu Arts Biennal, Buzău
2005 Artists from Vålcea Museum of Art, Drobeta -Turnu Severin; UAP Vålcea Branch Apollo Gallery, Bucharest
2006 Salon of National Art,Parliament Palace, Constantin Brâncuşi Room, Bucharest
2007-2008 Triennal of Itinerary Textile Art, Maria Fillotti Theatre Brăila; Museum of Contemporary Art, Galați; National Museum of Agriculture, Slobozia; Art Museum, Craiova; History Museum, Râmnicu Vâlcea; Art Museum , Cluj
2003, 2007-2013 National Salon of Decorative Arts, National Museum of Cotroceni, Bucharest
2007-2009 Salon of Plastic and Decorative Arts, Palace Hall, “George Enescu” Festival, Bucharest
2007- 2009 “Group 4” History Museum, Râmnicu Vâlcea; National Museum of Agriculture, Slobozia; House of Arts Gallery, Bucharest; Museum of Visual Arts, Galați; CEC Bank Building, Sibiu; Musem of Art, Constanța; the Festival of European Drama, Maria Filotti Theatre, Brăila; Museum of Art, Cluj; Museum of Art, Baia Mare; Apollo Gallery, Bucharest
2008 Tapestry, Museum of Visual Art, Galați
2009 Natural Sciences Museum Complex, Galați; Biennal of Visual Arts, “APALAV” Artex Gallery, Râmnicu Vâlcea; “Lascăr Viorel” Biennal of Plastic Arts, Museum of Art, Piatra Neamț
2010 "Still Life" Artex Gallery, Râmnicu Vâlcea; "Medieval Scenes", Grand Hotel Sofianu, Râmnicu Vâlcea; Men In Romanian Textile Art, Museum of Art, Constanța, "Aurelian Sacerdoțeanu" County Museum, Râmnicu Vâlcea; Orizont Gallery, Bucharest; "Iulian Antonescu" County Museum, Bacău; "Moldavia Salons" Museum of Contemporary Art, Bacău
2011 “Group 4+2” National Museum of Modern Art, Galați Museum of Art, Constanța; County History Museum; Forma Gallery Deva; "Iulian Antonescu"County Museum Bacău; "Men in Romanian Textile Art", National Museum Complex Iaşi
2012 "APALAV" Biennal of Visual Arts, 2nd edition, UAP Gallery "Artex", Râmnicu Vâlcea; "Textures", "Aurelian Sacerdoțeanu" County Museum, Râmnicu Vâlcea; "Still Life" UAP Gallery "Artex", Râmnicu Vâlcea; "Men in RomanianTextile Art", UAP "Ion Andreescu" Gallery, Buzău; Olt County Museum, "Ion Popescu Negreni" Gallery, Slatina, County Museum of Ethnography Caransebeş; "Group 4+4" UAP "Ion Andreescu" Gallery, Buzău,Olt County Museum, Artis Gallery Slatina; County Museum of Ethnography, Caransebeş; Biennal of Decorative Arts "Decorative Art 2012", Parliament Palace, "Constantin Brâncusi" Room Bucharest; "Artists from Vâlcea since Cecilia Cuțescu Storck", Art Museum ("Simian House") (basement), Râmnicu Vâlcea
2013 Art Fair, 12th edition Artex Gallery Râmicu Vâlcea; "Still Life” Artex Gallery, Râmicu Vâlcea; "Colour and Form for Eternity", first edition, ASTRA Museum, Sibiu; “Salon of Textile Arts”, Orizont Gallery, Bucharest; Exhibition of Visual Arts “THE NEIGHBOURS” Romanian Cultural Institute, UAP Branch Gorj, "Tudor Arghezi“ University Library, Târgu Jiu; the Exhibition of Plastic Art “Trajan's Column in Contemporary Art", Romanian Academy House, Bucharest;
2014 Many-County Painting Salon "Spring Signs", UAP “Artex" Gallery, Râmnicu Vâlcea; Salon of Textile Arts “Orizont" Gallery Bucharest; "Apalav" Biennal of Visual Arts, 3rd edition, UAP "Artex" Gallery, Râmnicu Vâlcea; Exhibition of Textile Art "Men at War", Museum of Art, Cluj Napoca; Exhibition of Textile Art "Men at War", Museum of Art, Baia Mare

INTERNATIONAL GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
1989 Mail Art Exhibition, Monferrato Italy
1994 Arcades Gallery Antibes France
1994-1996 L'Europe des Beaux Arts Gallery Antibes France
1995-1997 Du Port Gallery, Marseille France
1989- 1998 Miniature Exhibitions, Del Bello Gallery, Toronto Canada
1996 Moldova Salon, Art Museum, Chişinău Moldova
1996 2-eme Salon des Rubans Blues, National Order of Merit, Section Hauts-de-Seine Meudon, Paris France
1996-1997 Salon of Spatial Art "Espace Vision", Sofitel, Art Colections Museum, Bucharest Romania
1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 International Triennal of Textile Art, National Theatre, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest Romania
2000 Exhibition Centre, Shanghai China
2001 De Zeyp Gallery Brussels Belgia; Internet Gallery, easteuroart.com
2004 Exhibition: “Romanian Artists” at the European Parliament Brussels Belgium
2005 “Artists from Vâlcea”, Museum of Art, Kromeriz-Czech Republic; MINI-ART, IAA/AIAP to UNESCO, Berlin Germany
2006-2007 Romanian Cultural Institute, Madrid Spain; Municipal Gallery,Ciudad Real, La Mancha Spain
2010 "Moldova Salons", "Constantin Brâncuşi" Exhibition Centre, Chişinău, Republic of Moldova
2012 "West Meets East", the international project "A Cultural Book Exchange", 7th edition, Art Museum Constanța; International Painting Biennal, Graphic Arts, Sculpture "Meeting Point" 3rd edition, Art Museum, Arad;
2013 - 2014 National Salon of Decorative Arts, 13th edition, National Museum of Art of Moldova, Chişinău, Republic of Moldova, Archaeological Museum Sozopol, Republic of Bulgaria,
a UAP Vâlcea Branch Decorative Art Exhibition, Belgian-Romanian Culture House, "Arthis" Gallery Brussels
2014 International Art Exhibition “Underground” Ocnele Salina, Valcea county

ART SYMPOSIA
N. Bălcescu, Brădişor, Cozia, Colibița, Brădisor, Voina-Câmpul Lung: 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2014 International Art Symposia Ocnele Salina, Valcea county

FIELD TRIPS
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

MONUMENTAL WORKS
Tapestry: Festivity Room Împăratul Romanilor Hotel, Sibiu ; Tapestry: Danube Bridges, Slobozia Museum, Mosaic: Rhytms, Râmnicu Vâlcea Art High School ; Tapestry: Interferences, Marguerite Marie High School, Verosvres France

WORKS IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Romania, UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerlad, France, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Spain, U.S.A.

WORKS IN MUSEUMS
County Museums: Râmnicu Vâlcea and Slobozia, The National Museum of Cotroceni, The Art Collection of the Chamber of Deputies, Bucharest

REFERENCES (selection)
1998 Dan Grigorescu, Art Revue, Bucharest
1996 Petre Petria: Science, Culture and Art Personalities, Conphys Publishing Art
2000 Adrian-Silvan Ionescu The Art Galleries Reviews, Radio Cultural
2000 Encyclopedia of Contemporary Romanian Artists, ARC 2000 Publishing House, Bucharest, Dan Grigorescu, Aurelia Mocanu, Horia Avram, Constantin Mateescu
1999-2008 Tatiana Benchea Paraschiv, Carmen Leliana Hopartean Quoi De Neuf? Brussels Belgium.
2002 Alexandru Chira Grai Art and Literature Revue
2003 Adrian-Silvan Ionescu Visual Arts -TVR 2
2003 Observator cultural A Momentous Event, 218/ 2003;
2008 Enciclopedia of Personalities from Romania, Who's Who Switzerland

CONTACT
e-mail: www.traianboicescu.ro ; traianboicescu@yahoo.com

"The symbolic meaning of Traian Ştefan Boicescu's tapestries is enhanced by their lyrism, by their compositional clarity, by the elegance of the graphics and by the warm and profound harmony of the colours".
Dan Grigorescu
The "Art' Magazine, 1989


" Traian Ştefan Boicescu has been lately a constant presence at both personal and group tapestry exhibitions; his participation was, however, a discrete one, because of his self-imposed exigence. The artist's work is remarkable by the careful balance between background and message, as well as form and vocabulary and by the classical vibration given by the successive purifications that he uses and that paradoxically improve the forms. The transformation from analytical to synthetic can be seen in the drawing of some shell's delicate turnings or in some vegetable structure's expressive forms of spread traces which preserve the initial identity of the motive, the artist being able to convey new expressive values to a familiar universe. The decoration of his tapestries is enhanced by the refined chromatic which includes either only a reduced number of colours or harmonious combinations.
The pedantry of his works - that can be observed in each element of his textile creations and which doesn't spoil the plastic "pleasure" is to be seen again in the artist's oil paintings. Being especially panoramic landscapes from the Mediterranean area (the artist obviously and unwillingly continuing the good tradition of some Romanian artists of the interwar period, whom he met there), the paintings put together and reveal the visual impressions of a well-trained lyrical spirit. Due to the nervous and angular graphic sketches that he uses to depict the docks and the buildings rising between the sky and the water (compact surfaces of discretely vibrated colour), his oil-painting seem stronger and more consistent."
Aurelia Mocanu
Art Critic


THE Journal OF GALLERIES - Cultural Radio 2000
A quick glimpse of what is beyond Traian Ștefan Boicescu's creation reveals something that's constant: Nature as a source of inspiration. Without contemplating it passively, Traian Ștefan Boicescu knows how to push the perception of the nature to its minimum point, where the most intimate structures are seeding to be later seen in the plenitude. Like a careful surgeon, the artist "takes samples" from the organic and inorganic matter's intimacy, samples that he later archives into images. In this way, his tapestries highlight a vegetable or mineral microscopic world in which the plausible, real structures are turned into imaginary ones. The artist invents forms, composes them freely, yet with the exactitude of a scientist whose science does not reveal him any secret at all. The titles of his works do not offer only names, but also arguments: "Vegetable Structure", "Mineral Structure", "Cephalopod", "Fossils", etc.
Even though it is largely projected, the micro-universe preserves its colours very well-matched, chosen from the primary ones (plus beige and brown), the colours seem to be fake sketches which fill the whole background of the tapestry, in a real depicting exercise.
Nature has been for Traian Ștefan Boicescu a prior reference since his university years. Carefully depicted, nature appears in his paintings as well: a landscapist approach at its limit between figurative and non-figurative, in which the plentiful usage of colour (paste) and the canvas knife enhances the concise and exact depiction.
Horea Avram
Art Critic

Traian Ştefan Boicescu proves to be exceptionally receptive to the new experiments and tendencies in art. His works, which often have a delightful, violent chromatic, reveal a lyrism that combines the emotional feelings with the rational making-up of the image. The artist is a great painter. The strong and pure colours, spread in a multitude of tones, give a real impression of naturalism. Traian Ştefan Boicescu feels at ease in vast spaces. The complicated geometry of his works tends to a spirituality of scarcely - made forms, their scarcity suggesting the absolute. The subject, the anecdotic tone are subdued to the concise and fascinating game of forms. The drawing is exceptionally important for obtaining the aesthetic effect. The impression of vast spaces that especially his large tapestries give is to be noticed.
Constantin Mateescu
Writer


Traian Ştefan Boicescu graduated from The Arts Academy in 1989, the tapestry section and had Maria Mihaela Blendea as a teacher of his class. He is one of the members of the Plastic Artists' Union.
The artist has a rich activity having taken part in important national and international exhibitions where his works were appreciated.
Having a natural inclination towards the little world of animals and plants, towards the primary organism which are almost invisible, the artist studies passionately the microscopic structures, turning them into monumental ones. We could truly believe him to be a well-prepared naturalist if his efforts result weren't so elegantly decorated and if he didn't impress us with his chromatic refinement.
The mysterious and fascinating underwater life is a constant theme for Traian Boicescu's tapestry. By the way they were made and colours that were used, "Cephalopod", "Gasteropod" and "Talassa" evoke the fragility of those apparently ordinary beings that are still so full of resources for an analyst who is interested in their decorative values. Transparent jelly surfaces, rich rays vibrant arms, which are tempting and hypnotic moving constantly at each underwater current, contrastive tones emphasize the artist's graceful inspiration theme in all its beauty. When the water withdrew, what was alive petrified and only the obvious forms of shells which protected the perishing organic mass remained. The works "Fossils" and "Mineral Structure" highlight the ornamental motives, which are full of suggestions that can be offered by the dry depth of the sea to an artist-decorator.
The combination between light yellow, beige, white-grey and black represents the earth, while the underwater micro-organisms are represented by dark and light blue, green and red (by bluish, greenish and reddish shades).
Traian Ştefan Boicescu creates highly evocative tapestries by putting together his scientific and plastic interest.
Adrian - Silvan Ionescu
Cultural Observer - 2003


The author of remarkable artifacts, the painter and the decorator artist Traian Stefan Boicescu has a profoundly original vision defined by austere symbols, monumentality and by a rational articulation when arranging the compositional elements. His Mediterranean scenes evoke not only the picturesque feature of his visualizations but particularly a special reading-in of the urban structures metamorphosed into quasi geological structures, which are integrated in an almost celestial harmony. These painterly descriptions are pasted like some monumental concentrations on the colored background where stands the Sea.
Regarding Traian Boicescu's tapestry work, this is focused on the same points as in his paintings (connected to an aquatic environment). However, his tapestry is special because of its morphological richness and its organic texture. All these features are extremely refined stylistically and are capable of emphasizing the counterpointing effcts of the whole.
GHEORGHE VIDA
Art Critic


TRAIAN ȘTEFAN BOICESCU OR THE BOUNDLESS CONTENT OF THE ARTISTIC UNIVERSE
Th work of the artist Traian Boicescu must definitely be followed along the two essential coordinates that it includes, both equally important for understanding the approach taken by him.
The first direction is the one assumed during his university years that was decisive for his artistic evolution and that is definitely fundamental for understandingTraian Boicescu's art. This directs the viewer to decorative arts and in particular tapestry executed in the haute-lisse technique . The art of tapestry, with a long tradition of exceptional masterpieces, forced the artist to become an accomplished craftsman. First, the accomplishment of Traian Boicescu's technique came as a natural duty without which his ideas could not find a platform of expression and support. Then obviously, visual education, and general culture information offered him as a self-respecting artist a thorough basis and a starting point the endless content of which inquisitive thoughts arise directed toward an infinitely varied universe. Of the favorite themes of the artist, the world of vegetable and animal organisms is prevailing. Along with this, the urban theme completes the integrating vision of the creator offering the viewer powerful and sensitive images from which the details that were considered unessential have been removed. The artist adds various points, to the warmth of the fabric, velvety shades with which he builds the sweetened forms of the visible world.
Painting is the second coordinate of Traian Boicescu's creation, the artist translates a number of themes developed in the tapestry in order to find other solutions in oil on canvas. Marine fauna arabesques or the meanderings of vegetable symbols are more obvious in painting than the curves that he used in tapestry.
And the scalpel precision of the duct creates a visually spectacular game loaded this time with details.
Traian Boicescu's oil paintings prove that substantial changes took place in the artist's interest. The focus has dramatically shifted from an aesthetics of the velvety finesse recognizable in tapestry to a more analytical aesthetics of the oil technique which is nevertheless more transparent and colourful.
Tapestry and painting are two sides of Traian Boicescu's creation, each having the freedoms as well as the constraints of the technique that was used each being in harmony with the other and playing an important role in giving power to the creative imagination.
Roxana Păsculescu,
art critic


EMBODIMENTS AND RECOLLECTIONS
A fully mature artist, Traian Boicescu is now at a defining point in his career when he is achieving a synthesis of the shapes he has worked with and is clarifying his own vision of the world. Though his plastic compositions have the tendency of suggesting abstractness, the main source of inspiration for this painter and decorative artist continue to be the motifs selcted from the multitude of forms that are present in the terrestrial microcosm, a certain discrete, enigmatic, mysterious nature.
Never could an artist match in his creation the Great Creation of God, but each man that is graced with an artist's talent is given the restlessness of the chance of seeing more than the others and trying to understand what is generally not understood by the common people's senses and sensitivity. The artist tries to understand, for instance, how the upper, unseen world communicates with our world that is accessible to our senses, how this communication is achieved through the silent, vegetable world that is, however, endowed with the gauzy intelligence of a continuously changing element.
Nature is an enormous and permanently changing picture which includes the artist himself. The latter contributes to the understanding of the Great Creation to the extent his talent and skills allow him to. In his work he selects, embodies and recollects what he has seen.
For Traian Boicescu the discrete world of the waters, the silent life of marine vegetation and of the extremely gracious and ephemeral creatures living in the depths of this primeval element are irresistibly attractive. With Traian Boicescu, between tapestry and painting there is hardly any difference with the exception of those typically associated with either craft, as long as the picturesqueness of both forms of expression is so evident and penetrating.The artist, however does not make selections only on the level of forms, but also on the level of the range of colours. Colour is denied exuberance. Giving life to his own vision, the artist uses warm colours, clay colours, coloured gray shades, the serene coldness of many nuances of blue in a refined and discrete range of colours that is an undeniable distinctive trait of his personality.
Carefully studied rigurous compositions that suggest the permanent transformation both in the world of the easily perceptble forms as in the world of discret forms, whether they are oil paintings or haute lisse tapestries, the works of Traian Boicescu send your thoughts and look to less explored areas, to the intelligent, silent and mysterious world of the land or sea vegetable. The forms in Boicescu's works offer a great many suggestions.Sometimes, his embodiments seem to be subtle resonating tubes through which celestial music is going to be conveyed to the earth; some other times this vegetation described in ample arabesques looks like fluttering wings.The vegetable becomes concrete and personified in his paintings and tapestries; it becomes the messenger of the secrets of the universe..The sky, earth and water, three fundamental elements, thus communicate in Traian Boicescu's compositions, somehow reminding us of the genesis, of yhe days before the creation of man, the days when God, in His kindness and wisdom, was outlining the shape and the meaning of the world.
The extensive visual poem the artist is continuously working on is like a plunge into a parallel but no less real universe that is painfully palpable. Traian Boicescu is a prolific artist with an already impressive output in ll the domains of fine arts.
His numerous personal exhibitions in Romania and abroad, his participation in group exhibitions and creation camps, everything supported by his pedagogical calling, testify to the artist's dynamism, a plastic artist that focuses on the present without repressng his memory, a contemporary artist who is at the same tme capable of understanding and reinterpreting tradition.
Luiza BARCAN
Art critic