The Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery will host from Monday, May 17, 2021, from 5:00 p.m., the retrospective exhibition of the painter Gabriel Stephănescu-Arephy, in compliance with the safety rules in force, in order to prevent contamination with the new SARS-COV-2 coronavirus.
The curator of the exhibition is Mrs. Adina Rențea, President of the Cultural Association for the Support of Fine Arts, and the opening speech will be given by the two special guests of the Arephy event, Mrs. Ilinca Ştefănescu-Neagu, the painter’s niece, and Mrs. Dr. Cristina Lascu. The opening will be accompanied by the musical chords of the young performer, the violinist Vlad Picioruş. “Initiated into the secrets of fine art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest under the guidance of the painters Nicolae Vermont and George Demetrescu Mirea, the painter Gabriel Stephanescu-Arephy completes his studies in Switzerland, with Professor Ferdinand Hodler, then in France he enrolls at the École des Beaux -Arts, where he has André Lhote as his mentor.
The artist debuted with a personal exhibition at the Romanian Athenaeum in 1920, then at the Maison d’Arte hall in 1923 and at the Mozart salon in 1930. He was present at the Official Salons in Bucharest between 1930 and 1945. He participated in the creation of the frescoes in the Coronation Cathedral from Alba Iulia and the signs of the Casino in Mamaia in 1936. In Paris, he is a member of the Society of Independents where he regularly exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants from 1922 to 1973, as well as at the Bernheim Jeune Galleries and the Valerie Marie Brisot Gallery. In 1974 he was invited to the Knut-Gunther Gallery in Paris and the opening of the exhibition took place on April 26, 1974.
Retrospective exhibitions took place in Bucharest in 1976 and 1984 at the Eforie Gallery, and after the revolution a retrospective exhibition of the entire period of creation took place in 2006 at the Dialog Gallery within the City Hall of sector 2. Academician Răzvan Theodorescu talks about Gabriel Stephănescu Arephy, not forgetting to mention that his talent and leaning towards the artistic field is also due to the education he received in the family, the painter being the son of the famous composer George Stephănescu, the founder of the National Opera and the brother of the architect Victor Stephănescu (architect of the National Reunification Cathedral from Alba Iulia, the Casino from Mamaia, and in Bucharest the Palace of Arts, the National Museum of Geology, the Anglican Church, the Palace of the Military Circle): “Son of a musician with a vocation as a founder in our culture, brother of a well-known architect in the era , this painter, with an intellectual chromaticism, built clear forms that testified to his undisguised debts to a good foreign art and to the national one, of his great contemporaries. In his taste for masks and transvestites, but also for the refinements of some corners of internal or natural, I see an irony doubled by a lyricist who loved his job above all, cultured and lucid.””
Curator: Adina Rențea