Medi Dinu, Romanian painter, Died at 107

Margareta Wechsler “Medi” Dinu died on July 18, 2016.

She was a Romanian painter of Jewish origin belonging to the interbellum avant-garde current.

Dinu debuts in 1932 at the “Official Salon of White and Black” exhibition in Bucharest, with a self-portrait.

Dinu joins the Syndicate of Artists a year later, which enables her to travel to Balchik, a meeting place of the (mostly Jewish) avant-garde artists of the time.

From 1934 to 1939, Dinu visits the city of Balchik on several occasions and completes a number of works in pencil, water colors or oil, befriending personalities such as Victor Brauner, Gellu Naum, Sașa Pană, Geo Bogza.

While there she also meets poet Gheorghe Dinu, who becomes her husband.

During 1939, the mayor of Balchik, Octavian Moşescu, invites her to exhibit her works alongside other artists in the city’s school.

Before and after the Second World War, Medi was prohibited from publishing her works and begins working as a school teacher at a Jewish school in Bucharest.

Then, she travels and works in various cities in Romania, Bulgaria, and France, between 1940 and 1986.

Medi work remains largely unknown, until 2003, when she returns to her artistic life and takes part in the “Senior contemporary painters of Romanian” exhibition, in Bucharest and receives critical acclaim.

In 2008, Margareta creates two exhibitions at the Museums of Art in Constanța and Tulcea, donating a part of her works to these institutions.

During January 2009, at her centenarian anniversary, The National Foundation for Sciences and Art of the Romanian Academy hosts a retrospective exhibition of her works.

During 2010 she was awarded the “Victor Brauner Trophy” by the Niram Art Publishing House in Madrid.

During 2016, on International Women’s Day, works of the artist, from various periods, were displayed as part of the exhibition “Ages of Youth” at the “House of Arts” Cultural Center in Bucharest.

Medi Dinu passed away at 107 years old.