Constantin Lucaci is a Romanian contemporary sculptor, best known for his monumentalist sculptures and his kinetic fountains

Fountain

A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....

 (or decorative moving metal fountains) most made from stainless

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 , among which those from the Romanian cities of Reşiţa

Resita

' is a city in western Romania and the capital of Caraş-Severin County, in the Banat region. Its 2004 population was 83,985.- Etymology :The name of Reşiţa, might comes from the Latin recitia, meaning "cold spring", as the great historian Nicolae Iorga once suggested, presuming that the Romans...

 and Constanţa

Constanta

Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....

 are best known.

Since 1993, Constantin Lucaci has been a professor at The Sculpture Department of The Academy of Belle Arts, Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. His works, both "regular" and monumental are to be found in various Romanian museums as well as abroad.

Outside of Romania, Lucaci's kinetic sculpture Star is a part of the permanent exhibition "Fucina degli Angeli", Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, exposed among works of artists such Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...

, Max Ernst

Max Ernst

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...

, Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

 and Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Mark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the...

. Other different works of Constatin Lucaci are to be found in personal collections from cities such as Antwerp, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

, Milano, Roma

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

.

Constantin Lucaci has been awarded numerous national and international prizes and awards. He is a recipient of the Romanian Academy

Romanian Academy

The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....

 prize for his entire career (1990), of Herder Prize

Herder Prize

The Herder Prize, established in 1963 and named for Johann Gottfried von Herder, was a prestigious international prize dedicated to the promotion of scientific, art and literature relations, and presented to scholars and artists from Central and Southeastern Europe whose life and work have improved...

 for his entire work (1984) and of Gold Medal at the International Biennale of Art dedicated to Dante - Ravenna (1999) for his monumental art.

Prizes and Awards

• 1953 - "Medal of Toil" - Romania
  Romania
  Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
  
  
• 1968 - "Cultural Merit" Order - Romania
• 1974 - The Romanian Union of Plastic Artists' Prize for Monumental Art
• 1982 - "Knight of the Italian Republic" Order of Merit
• 1984 - Prize of the Romanian weekly magazine "Flacăra" for his Romanian series of kinetic fountains displayed in various Romanian cities
• 1984 - "Herder" Prize of the University of Vienna for his entire work
• 1990 - Prize of The The Romanian Academy
  Romanian Academy
  The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
  
   for his entire work
• 1999 - Gold Medal at the International Biennale of Art dedicated to Dante - Ravenna
• 2000 - "Freeman" of the city of Reşiţa
  Resita
  ' is a city in western Romania and the capital of Caraş-Severin County, in the Banat region. Its 2004 population was 83,985.- Etymology :The name of Reşiţa, might comes from the Latin recitia, meaning "cold spring", as the great historian Nicolae Iorga once suggested, presuming that the Romans...
  
  
• 2001 - Prize of "The Romanian Cultural Foundation"

Biography

• 1923 - born in Bocsa Romana, Banat, Romania

• 1929 - 1945 - During his childhood and youth the artist developed three major interests : the study of the surrounding world through Mathematics and Physics lessons, as well as music and modelling. Hew studied drawing and modelling with T. Botlich, an artist educated in the artistic milieu of Paris at the turn of the century and a former colleague of Mestrovic for two decades.

• 1945 - Attended the courses of the "Guguianu" Free Academy of Arts in Bucharest under Camil Ressu, Al. Ciucurencu and C. Medrea.

• 1948 - After his graduation of " Guguianu" Academy of Arts, he entered "Nicolae Grigorescu" Fine Arts Institute .Début at the Official Salon held in Bucharest where he exhibited " The Builders". Since then, he has participated in every annual and biannual art exhibition.

• 1950 - While a student, he displayed " The Swimmer" at the Official Salon in Bucharest, a sculpture piece that drew the attention of G. Oprescu.

• 1953 - Graduated " Nicolae Grigorescu" Fine Arts Institute.
• - April 29 married Irina Tomescu.
• - in April he participated to the Romanian Exhibition of Fine Arts held in Helsinki.

• 1954 - Works of sculpture displayed in the Romanian Art Exhibition presented at the Biannual di Venezia.

• 1958 - A participant in the Fine Arts Exhibition in Moscow.

• 1959 - Stainless steel works exhibited in the Romanian Fine Arts Exhibition in Budapest.

• 1961 - Participated in the Romanian Art Exhibition initiated in Damascus, Cairo, Alexandria.
• He also took part in the Exhibition of Sculptors' Drawings in Moscow

• 1963 - Attended courses at the Fine Arts Academy "Pietro Vanuci", Peruggia.

• 1966- Scholarship in France where he studied French and European sculpture but was especially attracted by Egyptian sculpture made of granite and basalt.
• Began a serie of monumental works made of stainless steel, later grouped by the artist in the serie "Space and Light".

• 1967 - Stainless steel monumental works in the Open- air Exhibition of Sculpture of Middelheim Park, Antwerpen.

• 1968 - Study trips to France, Belgium, Italy.

• 1972 - An exhibition of sculpture housed by the "French Library" in Bucharest ( 10–20 May).

• 1975 - Participated to the Romanian Art Exhibition of Contemporary Romanian Art in Belgrade, Damascus, Cairo and Alexandria.

• Participant in the Romanian Art Exhibition "Plastik und Bulmen" in Berlin

• A guest artist of " Fucina degli Angeli" Venice, he created the " Star", a kinetic sculpture made of stainless steel and glass, now part of the permanent display of " Fucina degli Angeli ", next to works by Mark Tobey, Picasso, Max Ernst, Chagall.

• Study trip to France

• 1976 - Participated in the International Congress of AIAP in Baghdad.

• 1977 - September, invited to Havana as a participant i the founding Congress of the Artists' Union.

• " Fucina degli Angeli" album published in Venice with a special chapter on the work of Constantin Lucaci.

• Participated in the Exhibition of Romanian Fine Arts, Moscow.

• 1979 - A participant in the Exhibition of Small Sculpture - Romanian Contemporary Art, Damascus.

• Participated in the AIAP Congress held in Stockholm.

• 1980 - Invited by the French Government to be present at the opening f the "Brancusi" Museum within the Georges Pompidou Centre, Beaoubourg, Paris.

• Participated in the international conference on the " Improvement of the Environment" held in Manilla, Philippines.

• 1984 - February–March, solo exhibition at The Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest.

• Since 1988 - A member of the international jury of the Biannual of Art dedicated to Dante, Ravenna.

• Since 1993- A professor of the Fine Arts Academy, the Sculpture Department, Cluj.

Works

• Works of Constantin Lucaci are in the custody of many museums in Romania. Collections of art abroad : Antwerp, Copenhagen, Venice, Rome, Milan, Ferrara.

External links

• Constantin Lucaci a brief presentation of Constantin Lucaci's biography and work on the romania-on-line.net web site
• One of Lucaci's works, "Compoziţie", Composition, one of Constatin Lucaci's steel sculptures at Museum of Art (Muzeul de Artă) din Târgu Jiu
  Târgu Jiu
  Târgu Jiu is the capital of Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu. Eight villages are administered by the city: Bârseşti, Drăgoeni, Iezureni, Polata, Preajba Mare, Româneşti, Slobozia and Ursaţi.-History:The city takes its name...
  
  
• On Constatin Lucaci and other personalities of the Romanian culture on the www.funtrivia.com web site
• http://members.fortunecity.com/hyperionedmn/fons.html, "The moving stailess steel fountains of Constantin Lucaci"