MARGINEAN, Viorel (1933-)

Viorel Marginean’s work focuses on the landscapes of his native country. He here depicts almost bare trees, except for a few green shoots placed towards the center of the composition. This is perhaps meant to represent life and hope in an otherwise wintery scene. The composition of thin and intertwined tree trunks and branches defines the vertical movement of the work. The sharpness of the dark branches against the white background creates a dynamic work, and the absence of shadows and depth gives it a stylish and decorative look.

Artist Biography

Viorel Marginean is a Romanian painter born in 1933; his father was a forest ranger from central Transylvania. Marginean studied at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest. He is a landscape painter, and often depicts towns with static houses, trees, as well as forests, alongwith the creatures that inhabit them.

He served as Minister of Culture in Romania in the middle of the 1990s. In 1992, he organized an exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters which was inaugurated by Jacques Cousteau. He came back to UNESCO in June 2006 on the occasion of another exhibition of his paintings and drawings, entitled "Romania as the crow flies".