Horia Bernea

b. 1938 — d. 2000

Horia Bernea was a Romanian painter, considered one of the most important to have emerged from the vanguard of the late 60's. Blending modernity and tradition, the abstract and the figurative, his works tend to place emphasis on the texture and the materiality of the painting, but are conceived by the author not in formalist terms, but as a way of dealing with the spiritual challenges of contemporary times. Between 1990 and 2000, he was director of MȚR (Museul Țăranului Român/The Museum of the Romanian Peasant), institution that received in 1996 the "European Museum of the Year" award.