​Contemporary South African Art

Georges Mazilu grew up in Romania, under the oppressive Ceausescu regime.  He completed the typical multi-year tenure in art school at the prestigious Nicolae Grigorescu Fine Art Institute in Romania, with the first several years focusing on realistic depiction of the human figure. Only after mastering the human form, could one declare a specialty in artistic media of choice. Mazilu chose painting, and continued painting the human form and occasional landscape until his escape from Romania in 1982.  He migrated to Western Europe, and his works have been exhibited widely throughout the world since the mid 1980s.

After Mazilu fled to France, he celebrated his new-found artistic freedom by incorporating abstraction into his work, which he had always longed to do.

The abstract forms he knew came from the Medieval architecture in his native Romania, as well as the clothing patterns used by his father–a tailor.  Mazilu’s unique combination of human/animal/abstract form established him as a stylistically unique artist.  This mysterious aesthetic, accompanied by his extraordinary painterly skill, has caused museums and private collectors from across the world to collect Mazilu’s works.  Art historians and writers such as Sam Hunter, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Princeton University; and South African writer Andre Brink have written numerous books and articles on Georges Mazilu’s artwork.

Ref:   https://www.turnercarrollgallery.com/artist-profiles/georges-mazilu/