Zamfir Dumitrescu
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Zamfir Dumitrescu was born in Bucharest to a family of intellectuals. His mother, Margarita Eckert, was half-Austrian, half-Swiss. His father, Dumitru, studied aeronautics in Paris, received a doctorate in physics and mathematics from Gottingen University, and was General Secretary of the Romanian Academy between 1963 and 1967.
Zamfir studied under Corneliu Baba at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest and graduated in 1970 alongside Stefan Caltia and Sorin Ilfoveanu.
He painted portraits of Nicolae Ceausescu and his family, which he saw as a ‘privilege’ and an artistic ‘challenge’, and has not regretted since. He also painted portraits of both the Norwegian and Swedish royal families in the 1980s, and over a period of 15 years spent a significant length of time in Norway.
Dumitrescu was the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts between 2000 and 2004, and was elected President of the Artists Union (UAP) in 2002. As a university professor he was author of handbooks for art students. Between 2004 and 2008 he was an independent member of Parliament, also chairing a Parliamentary group focussing on relations with Australia.
In both 2007 and 2008 he was a finalist in Tasmania’s John Glover Art Prize; in 2007 with a painting entitled ‘T for Tasmania’, and then the following year with ‘Tamar Views’. In 2008, his ‘One Dollar Painting’ was exhibited in museums across the United States.
After the Revolution in 1989, he opened the first private gallery in Bucharest, ‘Dominus’, and continues to exhibit the work of artists including Constantin Pacea, Stefan Caltia and Corneliu Petrescu.
Dumitrescu is married to the interior designer Nana Pacea, daughter of artist Ion Pacea.
Entry authored by Dr Alex Popescu, Dec 2016