Adrian Ghenie (; born 13 August 1977 in
Baia Mare) is a
contemporary Romanian painter, who lives and works in
Berlin, Germany.
Early life and education
The son of a dentist, he studied fine arts at the Arts and Crafts School in Baia Mare between 1991 and 1994.
He is a graduate of the
Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca (2001).
Career
Ghenie lives and works in
Cluj,
Berlin, and
London.
In 2005, he co-founded Galeria Plan B
in Cluj, together with Mihai Pop, a production and exhibition space for contemporary art. In 2008 Plan B opened a permanent exhibition space in Berlin.
His work has been widely exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, including at
Tate Liverpool,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Fondazione
Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
In June 2014 the oil on canvas painting "''The Fake Rothko''" was sold for £1,426,000 ($2,428,140).
In February 2016, the large oil on canvas painting "''The Sunflowers of 1937''"
inspired by
Vincent van Gogh's famous "''
Sunflowers''" was sold in London for £3,177,000 at a Sotheby's auction, marking it the most expensive painting sold by the Romanian artist.
Before the auction, the value of the painting was estimated between £400,000 and £600,000.
It belonged to the Galerie Judin of Berlin, who had purchased it from the artist.
Collections
Ghenie's work is represented in numerous major museum and public collections including the
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, the
Hammer Museum
The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...
, Los Angeles, the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the
Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp ( nl, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, commonly abbreviated as ''M HKA'', previously ''MuHKA'') is the contemporary art museum of the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Its current director is Bart de Baere.
Overv ...
,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and
Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst
The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (commonly abbreviated as S.M.A.K., translated as ''City Museum for Contemporary Art'') is a relatively new museum located in Ghent, Belgium, and is renowned both for its permanent collection (Art & Languag ...
,
Ghent.
Style and technique
Ghenie does not use traditional tools of the painter or brushes, but a
palette knife and
stencil
Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...
s.
He paints portraits of 20th century figures, particularly those associated with genocide and mass suffering, that appear in his work gnawed and slashed, blurred and speckled.
His painterly style has been compared to that of
Francis Bacon.
Exhibitions
References
External links
*
www.nolan-judin.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghenie, Adrian
1977 births
Romanian expatriates in Germany
Living people
People from Baia Mare
Romanian artists
20th-century Romanian painters
21st-century Romanian painters