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- After graduating with degrees in
Fine Arts and Teaching, for more than a decade, he dedicated
himself to an intense period of teaching, and ,at the
same time of personal studies and art creation, which
resulted in a number of solo and group exhibitions .
Soon though, he realizes how imperative
his need was to expand the sphere as well as the scale
of his creation was , and started to make the transition
toward monumental painting of large proportions.
- Starting 1977, Petru engaged himself
in a consuming process of studying and absorbing the secrets
of mural painting from the old masters of Romania - the
only country in this world where the art of painting murals
in the technique of “fresco” never ceased
from its very inception early in the Byzantine times,
until our present days, being used ever since in the painting
of churches or cathedrals for the representation or illustration
of the Biblical narrative on churches and cathedrals walls.
- The fact that Petru was still considered
un inconvenient political dissident and a potential enemy
of the regime, practically annihilated his chances of
developing a normal artistic career and put unsurmountable
obstacles for any public recognition in the very politicized
regime of communist dictatorship of Ceusescu..
In 1978 he quits teaching and decides
- in the absence of any other possible outlet - to dedicate
himself entirely to the fabulous and fascinating universe
of sacred art .This has become over years a major artistic
undertaking, but also a spiritual journey in the almost
“underground” career in religious mural painting
of what was at the time the communist Romania .
In the next decade, throughout his
early 40’ies Petru painted the interior - and many
times in the exterior - of more than 12 churches and
cathedrals, completely from top to bottom, in the
technique of fresco, oil, and egg tempera, succeeding
thus to offer the world one of the largest and most complex
and original ensembles of sacred murals created in contemporary
times .
After spending years in that almost medieval
atmosphere, often times between heavy monastery walls
and among outdated sacred representations, Petru managed
to distill the traditional Byzantine style
imposed and required in the Orthodox church painting,
into a more evolved and personal style which gained
him high recognition and appreciation.
Having lost any hope to ever feel free in
his own country, Petru continues to dream about an ideal
exile into another perfect world.
In 1987 he manages to buy his way
out from Romania and get a passport granting him for the
first time in his life the chance to travel to a Western
country beyond the Iron Curtain
An entirely new chapter starts in his
life when he is asking for political asylum in Vienna,
Austria.
In the quarantine of the famous Refugee
Camp in Traiskirchen, near Vienna, he makes his first
open political statements. In the 12 days
of detention there, he paints on his knees a series of
watercolors entitled “Capricios”: a dramatic
disclosure of the most brutal communist regime among all
the Eastern European countries, not only revealing the
atrocities of the Romanian communist regime but also suggesting
at the same time the only conceivable salvation.
Though highly restrained in his creative
efforts by the confinement of the refugee camp, for the
next 2 years, Petru’s creation reaches a remarkable
pick. A number of exhibitions in cities like Vienna, Glognitz,
Semmering, Salzburg, in public spaces, as well as in galleries,
bring the artist closer to the realization of the widespread
commercialization of the western art market, making him
feel out of time and space.
He concludes that the old continent was
indeed too old, and just before Christmas, in 1988, he
decides to emigrate to Canada.
For the next 6 years Petru lived in Ottawa,
the coldest capital of the world. Before the frigid climate
of Canada would start becoming increasingly evocative
of other confinements and imprisonments Petru experienced
in his previous life, the artist is responding to this
new world challenges with his best tools of Imagination
and Creation.
New, prodigious series of works are originated
here: “ Parallel worlds”, “Processions”,
‘The American Walls”, etc., imposing
a remarkably original vision in a milieu dominated by
local provincialism and wall decorativism.
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Large solo and group exhibitions in Toronto,
Montreal, Ottawa, New York and Los Angeles, in the USA,
brought important notoriety and recognition to the artist,
becoming important steps in consolidating the artist’s
role and status in the art history.
In 1994 Petru is selected among a large
number of applicants to paint the Dome of Beeson Divinity
School at Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
When the news that his project won the competition
reached him, he was back in the newly revolutionized Romania,
painting murals in a chapel of a 500 years old Orthodox
Monastery
He presented his model at Samford in USA
on June 15, 1994 and started to work on the new project
in October that year. The same year, based on his “extraordinary
abilities”, the American government granted
him almost immediately the status of permanent resident.
The spectacular and monumental composition
he was commissioned to paint on the dome of the newly built
replica of a Renaissance church at Samford, is dominated
by a dominant figure of Christ and a “cloud of witnesses”overlooking
16 of the most important personalities of the Christian
faith, 16 historical portraits projected on a background
evocative of their life, in their specific time.
This commission was followed by others and
Petru continued his work at Samford for the next 5 years
as an artist in residence. The next projects
included more vertical murals representing the “Seasons”,
6 sculptures - portraits of modern martyrs, and other paintings
that have been placed throughout the Dean and other professors
offices at the Beeson Divinity School.
With the occasion
of the Dedication in October 1996 an exhibition of
more than 100 preparative drawings and sketches by Petru,
was presented at The Samford University Art Gallery inaugurating
the numerous events that took place on this occasion.. The
show was completely sold out
His great reception and success in Birmingham, the
extensive recognition and cover of all the media from newspapers,
and magazines to the TV stations , contributed seriously
to his decision to start calling Birmingham “home”.
In the following years the artist kept permanently
in touch with an ever growing number of collectors and people
interested in his secular or sacred artwork through Galleries
like Artsland and Raphael’s.
In 2001 he accepted a new challenge: the painting
in fresco of a newly built cathedral in Romania in
the city of Zalau (Transylvania). A replica to the world
famous basilica in the ancient Constantinople(today Istambul)
“The Saint Sofia”, this project will take him
more than a decade to be completed.
In 2002 he started
yet another similar project: the older cathedral of the
same city, a wonderful building that he paints in acrylic.
He enjoys his house in the magnificent surroundings of the
city of Zalau, his team of students and apprentices and
the wonderful summer season in Romania, but Petru continues
to also love his place here, in Birmingham, Alabama where
he returns every late fall, happy to come back to his great
studio and workshop as well as to a faithful stable of collectors.
An ample documentary
reflecting both his secular and sacred works has been recently
produced a by The Romanian Television in Bucharest, and
the Romanian version was already broadcast in Romania as
well as in USA on the Romanian International TV.
Petru’s artwork is today featured in Museums
public spaces , private residences and numerous personal
collections around the world, though Petru prefers his artwork
rather in people’s homes.
Entrusting his collectors with his paintings - the
most enduring statements his spirit could ever emanate,
- Petru is convinced that beyond enjoyment he brought about
in their houses , he also implanted there the excitement
and temptation to follow him -consciously or unconsciously
- INTO HIS GREAT ADVENTURE - into the terra incognita that
he decided to explore , into the splendid narrative of his
oeuvre which he, himself, follows with passion as a spectator,
never knowing where it would take him ,or you in the end,
enjoying the surprise and adventure exactly like an outsider...
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