CONSTANTINESCU, Mihai Filip (Mac, Marc)







CRITICAL REVIEW

With a serious and varied formation, Mac Constantinescu has been an active presence in Romanian culture for half a century. Sculptor, decorator, ceramist, illustrator, restaurateur and teacher, he left behind a vast oeuvre. As a sculptor, Mac Constantinescu sets himself between the architectural sculpture he learned from Bourdelle and the Art Deco type elegance, obvious in many portraits and busts. As a decorator, Mac Constantinescu used at maximum the effects specific for the different materials (stone, wood, terracotta, metal) and techniques in works that, at their time, imposed standards of the artists taste; he is the author of many architectural decorations – reliefs, fronts, fountains. He illustrated the edition of Alexander Marcu from the Divine Comedy (1932). Mostly between 1930 – 1940, he publishes art chronicles, theoretical articles and travelling notes.
 
 Ioana Vlasiu
 


IMAGES



    BIOGRAPHY

    (Berlin - Charlottenburg, 1900 - Câmpina, 1979)

    Academic studies:
    1920 - 1923 – School of Fine Arts, with Ion Jalea, Bucharest;
                         - Free Academy of painting, drawing and sculpture, with I.Jalea, Jean Al. Steriadi, Artur Garguromin Verona, Ştefan Popescu;
    1924 - 1926 - École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, with Jean Boucher, Paris;
                        - Académie Grande Chaumiere, with Antoine Bourdelle;
                        - Julian Academy, with J. Boucher and Paul Landowski;
     - he also takes classes at Sorbona and École du Louvre (history of art with Louis Hautecoeur);
    1926 – Internship at Sevres manufactures;
    1927 - 1928 – Member of the Romanian School in Rome (studies of archaeology and restoration);
    1945 - 1964 – Professor of art history at „Ion Mincu” Institute of Architecture, Bucharest;
    1964 - 1970 - Professor at the department of  Decorative Arts, „Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Fine Arts, Bucharest.
     


    PROJECTS

    Solo exhibitions:
    1932 - Rome, Italy;
    Numerous exhibitions in Bucharest;
    1976 – Retrospective exhibition.

    Group exhibitions:
    1925 - Salon des Artistes Français, Paris, France;
    1926 - Salon d’Automne;
    1928 - 1929 - Salón des Independents;
    1935 – Universal exhibition, Brussels, Belgium;
    1937 – Universal exhibition, Paris, France (Silver medal);
    1940 - Triennial at Milano, Italy.

    Monumental works:
    Reliefs - Bucharest, former Ministry of External Affairs, Faculty of Law, Arcul de Triumf, Casa Scânteii; 
                   - State Theatre, Galați;
                   - Hotel Modern; Murfatlar, Mamaia, Constanța;
    fountains – Mioriţa Fountain, Bucharest (with Miliţa Pătraşcu and arch.Octav Doicescu).

    Museums:
    National Art Museum of Romania;
    Zambaccian, Bucharest;
    History and Art Museum, Bucharest County;
    Museum of Crişuri, Oradea, Bihor;
    County Museum, Suceava;
    County Museum, Tulcea;
    Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington, USA.

    Distinctions:
    1935 – Silver medal, Universal Exhibition, Brussels, Belgium;
    1937 -  Silver medal, Universal Exhibition, Paris, France;
    1957 - Artist emeritus;
    1969, 1971 – Congress and Conference of the International Association of Plastic Artists in Amsterdam and Belgrade.
     
    Grozdea, Mircea, Mac Constantinescu, Bucharest, 1972.
     


    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Grozdea, Mircea, Mac Constantinescu, Bucureşti, 1972.

    50 contemporary sculptors, Bucureşti, 1979.
    Barbosa, Octavian, Dicționarul artiștilor români contemporani, Editura Meridiane, București, 1976.
    Fundația Culturală META, Un secol de sculptură românească. Dicționar A-D. Colecția SINTEZE, Editura META, 2001, pp. 136 - 137.
    Prut, Constantin, Dicționar de artă modernă, Editura Albatros, București, 1982.
    R. Edouard-Joseph, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains 1900 - 1930, Paris, 1930, I (Constantinesco Marc).
    Saur, Saur Allegemaine Kunstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Kunstler aller Zeiten un Volker, 20, K.G. Saur Munchen-Leipzig, 1998.
    Vlasiu, Ioana (coord.), Dicționarul sculptorilor din România. Secolele XIX-XX, vol. I, lit. A-G, Editura Academiei Române, București, 2011, pp. 150 - 151.
    Vollmer, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler des XXsten Jahrhunderts, vol. I - VI, Leipzig, 1953.

    Artele plastice în România după 23 August 1944, Bucureşti, 1959.
    Florea, Vasile, Arta românească modernă şi contemporană, Bucureşti, 1982.
    Grigorescu, Dan, Idee şi sensibilitate. Direcţii şi tendinţe în arta românească contemporană, Bucureşti, 1991, p. 31.
    Mackay, 1977 (Constantinesco Marc).
    Oprescu, George, Sculptura românească, Bucureşti, 1964.

     „Arta”, nr. 1, 1976, p. 12.
     „Arta”, nr. 10, 1979, p. 34 - 35.
    „Arta”, nr. 9, 1971, p. 16 - 17.
    Vianu, Tudor, Sculptura românească, în: „Arta şi tehnica grafică”, nr. 5, 1938.