Images

Decorative art collection

Although it currently includes a relatively small number of works, the decorative art collection allows for a compelling overview of the evolution of this artistic genre through the creations of renowned representatives such as Arina Ailincăi, Alexandru Antik, Doina Maria Hordovan, Ana Lupaș, Ion Minoiu, and Horea Sârbu.

Arina Ailincăi was born in 1946 in Cluj-Napoca. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca in 1969. Between 1989 and 1999, she lived and created in Canada, and in 1992 she received a "Visual Art Teaching Certificate" from the University of Toronto. In her earlier works, the artist offered a response to an emotional relationship with the history of civilization, paraphrasing through her ceramic works familiar objects and signs such as maps, manuscripts, archaic alphabets, and measuring instruments. More recently, the vessel-forms, often covered with writing, suggest symbolic meanings related to the human condition.

Alexandru Antik was born in Reghin in 1950. Between 1970 and 1975, he studied at the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. From 2003 to 2005, he attended the doctoral school at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts (MKE) in Budapest. Between 1975 and 1987, he was a model designer at the IRIS Porcelain Factory in Cluj-Napoca. In 1977, he took part in the exhibition of small-scale sculpture and decorative porcelain objects titled Artefacte at the Main Gallery in Cluj-Napoca. Alexandru Antik is a representative artist of several directions in Romanian contemporary art, holding a highly visible position alongside prominent artists and art groups such as Geta Brătescu, Ion Grigorescu, Mihai Olos, Ana Lupaș, Group III, and Sigma.

Doina Maria Hordovan was born in 1934 in Sibiu. She studied at the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca between 1952 and 1958. She made her debut in Cluj in 1960. In the field of decorative and applied arts, she created decorative panels and reliefs—wood and plaster on black stoneware backgrounds—at the Student Cultural Center and the Telephone Palace in Cluj in 1970.

Ana Lupaș is a well-known decorative artist. She was born in 1940 in Cluj-Napoca and studied at the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. She made her debut in 1965 in the same city. Early on, the artist was appreciated by art critics as an inventive spirit who transcended the artistic conventions of tapestry. Through her works, Ana Lupaș reinterprets the archaic foundations of folk textile art, which she translates into inspired fabulist compositions based on these primary models. Her concern with the archaic foundation is the subject of original interpretations, forming a contemporary metadiscourse of modernist extraction.

Ion Minoiu is a painter and decorative artist, born in 1931 in Moreni, Dâmbovița County. He graduated from the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1955. He works in painting and especially ceramics, a field in which he has had an extensive and diverse activity: mural panels, tiles, clocks, figurines, timepieces, tubular fretworks, and decorative plaques. A keen sense of rhythm, appropriately applied to the chosen materials, places these domestic utility objects in the realm of imagination—at times baroque—marked by undeniable expressiveness.

Horea Sârbu graduated from the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca, specializing in ceramics, in 1980. Between 1981 and 1989, he participated in regional exhibitions of graphic and decorative art in Cluj-Napoca, as well as in youth biennials in Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Alba Iulia, and Bucharest (1990), and in Atelier '35 exhibitions (Baia Mare). He was awarded the Prize for Decorative Art in Toronto (1990) and an "Honorary Diploma" in Sopot (1991).

The patrimonial collection of decorative art reflects the concerns of some of the most valuable modern and contemporary artists, whose impact on the development of contemporary art is decisive.