Album despre DIMITRIE BEREA (1908-1975)

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Dimitrie BEREA (1908 - 1975)

1908- 2 noiembrie, la Bacău se naşte Dimitrie Berea. Mama - pictoriţă; tatăl - judecător.

1927-1932- student la Academia de Arhitectură din Bucureşti

1930-Împreună cu Theodorescu-Sion, pe atunci profesorul său, fondează la Bucureşti una din primele academii avangardiste de pictură - "Ileana"

1932- expune la expoziţia anuală de la Academia de Arhitectură şi este admis cu trei desene la Salonul Oficial de desen şi gravură-Pavilionul Artelor şos. Kiseleff

1934- premiul Salonului Oficial din Bucureşti (unde picturile sale au fost expuse regulat, din 1928), pentru portretul d-rei L.S. (Lizeta Şoarec). Lucrarea a fost achiziţionată pentru Pinacoteca Municipală
Expoziţie personală la Sălile Dalles, Bucureşti

1936 - expoziţii personale la galeriile Lăpuşneanu din Iaşi, capitala culturală a Moldovei şi galeriile Casinoului din Constanţa, inaugurat de Regina Maria a României.

1937 - Pleacă la Roma, cu o bursă specială a Guvernului Italian. Studii la Academia Regală de Belle Arte.

1938 - Expoziţie la Academia Română din Roma.

1939 - Întâlnire decisivă cu Marie Fontaine-Desjardins, directorul Muzeului impresioniştilor ; îi dedică prima expoziţie de după război, la galeriile Allard din Paris. Prin ea, i-a cunoscut pe Matisse, Van Dongen, Andre Lothe şi mai ales pe Bonnard, pe care-l consideră maestrul său.

1940 - Expoziţie la Roma şi la Galeria de Belle Arte, inaugurată de regele Vittorio Emmanuelle III.

1941- expoziţie la Milano, la Galeria del Duomo, deschisă de Ministerul Artelor Frumoase.

1942- Primeşte o diplomă de la Academia Regală de Arte Frumoase din Roma. Expoziţie personală importantă la Roma, la Palazzo Lancellotto, deschisă de ministrul Educaţiei Naţionale.

1943 - Revine la Bucureşti, spre a candida la postul de curator al Muzeului Th.Aman

1943 - expoziţie la Căminului Artei- Galeriile Kretzulescu calea Victoriei 45 24 ianuarie-14 februarie

1946 - revine la Paris pentru expoziţia dedicată Mariei Fontaine Desjardins, la galeriile Allard.

1947 - expoziţii la Atheneul din Geneva şi la Chicago Haller, Zurich. Întâlnire cu Leon Paul Farguews, Lucien Fabre, Alain Bedel şi Gerard Bauer, căruia artistul îi face portrete binecunoscute.

1948 – expune lucrări la Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, portretul lui Leon-Paul Fargues- „Visages de Paris”, la Galerie Lanmark -„Montmartre Landscapes” şi la Galeria Artelor Frumoase din Geneva.

1949-Altă expoziţie la Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, unde Andre Warnod prezintă cartea sa despre Dimitrie Berea.

1950 - expune portrete la Herve’s, Butte de Montmartre; Roland Dorgeles vorbeşte despre Dimitrie Berea ca despre unul din cei mai importanţi portretişti ai timpului, alături de Kisling şi Van Dongen. Expoziţie la galeriile Andre Weil, Paris.

1951- expoziţii la M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris şi la galeria Cavalino din Veneţia, numită mai târziu Manifestul Veneţian. Va apare şi o carte cu acelaşi titlu, prefaţată de Maximilien Gauthier. La expoziţia „Peisaje veneţiene”, artistul prezintă lucrări şi semnează prima ediţie a Manifestului Veneţian.

1952 - expoziţie la „Circolo de las Bellas Artes”, Madrid. Altă expoziţie la Galerias Layetanas, Barcelona, unde „Manifestul Veneţian”, tradus în catalană, este discutat cu ardoare şi violenţă la cenaclul Los Trascaccios. La galeria Bernheim-Jenue, expoziţia ”Bonnard, Vuillard, Berea” îi permite să-şi vadă lucrările expuse alături de ale celorlalţi maeştri.

1953 - invitat de Guvernul britanic, Dimitrie Berea expune pânze inspirate de Londra, decorate cu ocazia Încoronării reginei Elisabeta a II-a- pentru Tooth& Son, Londra.

1954 - expoziţie la O’Hanna Gallery, Londra - cu titlul „Visions de France et d Angleterre” vernisată de ducesa de Kent. Berea întâlneşte pe Winston Churchill în Downing St.10 şi un grup de politicieni ce au oferit Premierului o lucrare pentru a 80-a aniversare.Expune la Casino Gallery, Vichy şi la Edinburgh Festival, Whystock/& Reid’s.

1955 - expoziţii la Museul din Moulins şi la Cannes, la Galeria 65, alături de Henry Matisse şi Pablo Picasso

1956- expune la M.M.J.H. Bernheim -Jeune Paris ca parte a expoziţiei „Omagiu lui Bonnard” şi la Galerie de Remparts Rohr Volmar, expoziţii la Veneţia şi Paris.

1957 - „Vernisaj în jurul unui portret”, la Hanna Becker von Rath’s Kunstkbinet, Frankfurt am Main, precedată de o lectură a artistului însuşi „Arta confruntată cu abstractul şi cu fenomenul creativ” („Art confronted by the abstract and the creative phenomenon”).

1958- întâlneşte pe Pablo Picasso la Cannes. Expune la Galerie du Beller -”Dimitrie Berea în lumea lui Picasso”( „Berea in the land of Picasso”) - cu o lectură despre paşii greşiţi în artă. Primeşte,din partea unui juriu de personalităţi şi critici, marele premiul la „Salon du Portrait”

1959 - decoratorul Chaurand prezintă la Cannes, pânzele lui Berea pe tema „Opera de artă expusă în condiţii propice creează atmosferă” („The work of art in its proper setting, crates atmosphere and climate.”).

1960 - lucrări recente expuse la Domenico’s, Cannes.”O sută de picturi de Dimitrie Berea” la MMJH Bernheim-Jeune, expoziţie marcată de o cărţulie comemorativă însoţită de o reproducere în facsimil a unei „Profesiuni de credinţă”, scrise de artist. Întâlnire oficială cu prinţul şi prinţesa de Monaco, la Berna.

1961 - invitat să expună la Monte - Carlo, la galeria Rauch. Primeşte marele premiu Hors concours, la Salonul Internaţional al Artei Moderne de la Paris. Expoziţie la galeria Acquavella, New York.

1963 - dublă expoziţie la Paris şi Londra. Lucrări recente, şapte picturi din ciclul „Londra în timpul încoronării”- darul lui Dimitrie Berea pentru „naţiunea engleză”, sunt expuse la Guildhall.

1964 - inaugurarea picturii sale murale “Omagiu Parisului.”- triptic prezentând simbolurile monumentale ale Expoziţiei Universale de la Paris - turnul Eiffel, podul Alexandru III şi Grand Palais- la Club of the Top of the Fair, New York.

1965- expoziţie la DeYoung Museum, San Francisco

1966 - expoziţie la Gilbert Gallery, San Francsco

1967 - expoziţie la Palm Beach Gallery

1973 - expoziţie La Poinciana Gallery, Palm Beach şi Service Culturel Ambassade de France de la New York. Expoziţie majoră la Eric Galeries, New York.

1975 - moare de cancer, la Paris.

1990 - retrospectivă - Berea collection - la Philips Fine Art Auctioneers, New York.

1991- mare retrospectivă la Musee de Villefranche, Franţa. Selecţie de lucrări (1941-1970) expuse la Ergane Gallery, New York.

2002-2003 Muzeul Dimitrie Berea in SUA pe baza donatiei sotiei

2009 - Expozitia "Necunoscutul DIMITRIE BEREA" organizata la Muzeul Municipiului Bucuresti de Societatea Colectionarilor de Arta din Romania.

***

"Berea, neștiutul"
de Radu Comsa - Revista "Cultura" nr.43 din 29 octombrie 2009 pag.31

Titlul este o parafrază, o construcție la jumătatea drumului dintre “Necunoscutul Dimitrie Berea” – titlul oficial al expoziției de la Muzeul Municipiului București și „Jude neștiutul „ al lui Thomas Hardy. Într-o paralelă largo cu eroul lui Hardy, Dimitrie Berea pare să se fi bucurat de onoruri constante în viață urmate de o indiferență continuă în posteritate, inclusiv la București, unde ultima sa expoziție le la Căminul Artei, Kretzulescu, era datată 1944.
Expoziția deschisă până pe data de 30 octombrie2009 la Palatul Șuțu este o inițiativă a Societății Colecționarilor de Artă și cum aceasta este o asociație independentă, expoziția nu exprimă decât dorința societarilor. Din fericire subiectul nu le este impus, ei sunt liberi de a pune in valoare oricare din valorile lor. Pentru Dimitrie Berea, admirația fusese deja exprimată de președintele asociației, Vasile Parizescu, în ”Viața ca o pasiune”, cartea sa autobiografică recent apărută la Monitorul Oficial.
Acea admirație explicită lăsa să se întrevadă o eventuală inițiativă recuperatoare și anticipația se confirmă în aceste zile la etajul Palatului Șuțu. Pe vremuri, e de sperat că și acum, profesorii la Belle Arte își obligau studenții să frecventeze casele de licitații și să studieze tot ce se poate vedea public la pasajul dintre două colecții, printre multe scene convenționale de gen găsindu-se sigur și minunății expuse pentru foarte puține zile. În același mod, o expoziție a societății colecționarilor aduce inevitabil aceeași tipologie de imagini noi capabile să creeze nu numai referințe, ci și revelații. Într-o mobilizare exact cât trebuie, necunoscutul Dimitrie Berea este recompus expozițional la peste șase decenii de la ultima sa expoziție, tablourile cele mari sosind din America. Fără fonduri instituționale sau europene de cheltuit aiurea, cu vernisaj fără televiziuni și interviuri. Pentru un dependent de fonduri vernisajul ar fi părut o întâlnire conspirativă, dar absența interesului mediatic suprapus valorii evenimentului putea fi comparat doar unui convivium paleocreștin, într-atât de mare era diferența între pasiunea colectivă și indiferența instituțională. Cu marea excepție a gazdei expoziției, Muzeul Municipal.
Și totuși Dimitrie Berea nu a fost printre cei pe care să-i fi ocolit notorietatea. A fost portretistul societății globale jet-set în epoca avioanelor cu elice, dacă un asemenea paradox aviatic poate fi permis. De la Winston Churchill la prințul Gustav , actualmente rege suedez, trecând prin gondola divelor cu actrița Merle Oberon în frunte, toți aceștia i-au pozat lui Berea. L-au admirat, l-au cumpărat, l-au recomandat. Foarte probabil, a existat o modă Berea în Pennsylvania, la Paris, Cannes sau Londra. Biografia începe în România.
Dimitrie Berea s-a născut în 1908 la Bacău, într-o familie înstărită, fiu al unui avocat implicat în politica locală și al unei pictorițe școlite în Franța. Dată fiind filiația artistică pe linie maternă, părinții l-au încurajat în acest sens și tânărul Berea face studii de arhitectură la București, în timpul cărora înființează societatea “Ileana”, împreună cu Ion Theodorescu-Sion și Gheorghe Zlotescu. Deocamdată nimeni nu a documentat și detaliat așa cum ar trebui rolul declarațiilor de genul “Ileana” în arta românească, se așteaptă probabil consumarea monotemei avangardei sincrone sau forțat sincrone.
După o expoziție personală în 1936 la Iași la galeriile Lăpușneanu, Berea pleacă anul următor la Roma. Inițial ca bursier al statului italian, apoi la Accademia di Romania, într-o Romă a mega-exactului cazon de marmură care poate genera și azi pasiuni pro sau contra. Inima sa pleacă și rămâne la Paris, unde, în 1939, îi întâlnește pe Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse și Van Dongen prin intermediul muzei Marie Fontaine Desjardins. În 1942 la 34 de ani, deschide prima sa expoziție personală la Palazzo Lancellotto, acesta fiind anul în care primește câte o diplomă pentru fiecare din cele cinci discipline pe care le studiase la Roma la Academia de Belle Arte.
Se întoarce la București și devine director al Muzeului Aman. Noua ordine îi e complet străină așa că emigrează în 1946. Publică manifestul său de la Veneția, expune la Paris în 1952 cu Henri Matisse și cu cel pe care îl consideră maestrul său, Pierre Bonnard, ca un preambul al caruselului notorietății în care biografia penalizează viitorul.
Pentru că Dimitrie Berea va rămâne confinat perpetuu într-un palier pentru care amănuntele biografice ulterioare nu sunt decât anexe penalizante de trivia. Ca, de exemplu, căsătoria sa târzie cu Alice Gurielli, nepoată de rege georgian și soferiță de taxi newyorkez trecută, culmea, prin București.
Posesor al unei tehnici exacte și al unui stil imediat recognoscibil, Dimitrie Berea a rămas aici. Subiectul, adică ochiul trecut prin inima proprie, rămâne la o foarte dulce convenție. Și asta începând din România. Peisajul lui din Bran are exact unghiul cărții poștale, fără sinceritatea Elenei Popeea, considerată ultramodernistă, dar brăneancă de suflet, așa cum țăranii săi mustăcioși nu au sinceritatea unui Løwendal chiar reeducat, iar țigăncile lui Berea nu au curajul premoniției egalitare a lui Jean David.
Convenția continuă într-o lume care plătește bine și se vrea frumoasă. Stilul Berea garantează frumosul, în portrete și nu numai. Parisul există prin Place Vendôme, sudul Franței se vrea la Cannes între bărci rapide și bine întreținute. Post-factum, succesul Berea, chiar hyperdiluat, poate genera și azi clișeul Parisului și ale altor branduri locale dependente de bugete turistice.
Și Margareta Sterian a fost posesoarea unui stil imediat recognoscibil dar, spre deosebire de Berea, ea a preferat o existență în recluziune cu păstrarea unui univers propriu intact și fără limite, care permite o explozie ulterioară a unei recunoașteri mondialmente unanime. Spre deosebire de Sterian, Berea a trăit fantastic într-o lume încadrată comanditar. Poate motivat de formația sa ca arhitect, subiectul rămâne deschis, pentru că tema pictorilor-arhitecți- pictori merită detaliată în sine, de la Iser la G. M. Cantacuzino.
Amănuntul foarte interesant al expoziției de la Șuțu, expoziție nebifată în nici un buget și nebifată de critici bugetari, este că reușește să adune, în foarte puține opere, o proporție maximă de nonclișee. Mai exact momentele rarisime când Berea se lasă furat de subiect și nu îl construiește convențional. Ca cel peisaj cu râu din colecția …..
Acesta este Berea neștiutul.


***

Born to an upper middle class family in Bacau, Romania, Dimitrie Berea became an artist who would later be known as painter to the aristocratic and royal families of Europe and the art world of France and America. His father was a lawyer-politician and his mother was a painter trained at the French Ecole des Beaux Arts. Many parents would consider art a less than suitable career choice, but Dimitrie’s maternal family had been involved in the arts for a number of generations. So at the age of nineteen, Dimitrie entered the Academy of Architecture, in Bucharest where he spent the next five years. While in the academy he and his master teacher, Theodorescu-Sion and a student friend, founded a non-conformist painting academy called "ILEANA". This academy/school served progressive young artists. During the 1930s he became a rising young Romanian painter.

In 1937, the Italian government invited him to come to Rome and enroll "with compensation" at the Royal Academy of Fine Art to study painting, decoration, sculpture, scene-painting and engraving. The following year the Romanian government paid his expenses at the Roman Academy. Meanwhile he exhibited in various invitational exhibitions, hung one-person shows in private galleries in Romania and Italy and also traveled to Paris. In Paris (1939) he was an habitué of Marie Fontaine-Desjardins’ salon where he met the latter day impressionists Bonnard and Vuillard and the fauve artists Matisse and Van Dongen. Dimitrie Berea would later consider himself a pupil of Bonnard, or perhaps better, in sympathy with Bonnard’s painting style, paint application and color choices. In 1942 at the age of thirty-four, Berea received a diploma in each of the five branches of art he studied while at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Rome.

During the late summer of 1942, Berea hung a one-person show at the Palazzo Lancellotto, Rome, where the book Berea, written by poet and art historian Mario Rivosecchi, was available to the exhibition audience. Giuseppe Galassi, Antonio Petrucci and S. A. Luciani wrote a text about Berea for his exhibition at Kretzulescu Gallery’s Caminul Artei, Bucharest (1944); and still another book, this time written by Andre Warnod and also titled Berea was published in 1949. Here Warnod called Berea "a new apostle of the Paris School". Concurrent with a 1951 exhibition of Venetian Landscapes (Galeria Cavalino, Venice) Berea wrote and published his "Venice Manifesto" which was later translated into Catalan and English. Biographical time lines, lists citing collectors and museums and quotes from various personalities and literati were published throughout his career in exhibition catalogs.

During the 1950s, Dimitre Berea became a French citizen and an active lecturer. These lectures were frequently associated with theme based exhibitions; for example he spoke formally about his "Profession of Faith", "The work of art in its proper setting, "Atmosphere and climate", "Art confronted by the abstract" and "The creative phenomenon". His text and lecture concerning the "Venice Manifesto" was hotly contested in a number of different settings.

By the 1960s Berea was a frequent visitor to New York City, Miami, Palm Beach, San Francisco and Hollywood and at the same time had apartments in New York City, Paris and San Francisco. His first exhibition (1961) in the United States was at the Aquavella Gallery, in New York City. Berea continued to be a landscape painter of "proper settings" while in the United States but he also became a painter to the Hollywood community. Throughout his career he had accepted commissions as a portrait painter, but in this decade he received numerous commissions as painter to Hollywood movie stars.

Berea met and married a California socialite after his very successful retrospective at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. However, this marriage ended in divorce. In 1972, after having known her for three years, Berea married Princess Alice Gurielli. She had fled Europe after her family estates and property had been confiscated by the Communist government and had been imprisoned in utter privation for three years under Stalin. Her grandfather had been King of Georgia. She was a Romanian refugee (1966), sponsored by the Orthodox Church, drove a taxi in New York City, lived in Harlem and worked as a charwoman for numerous Romanian families in the New York metropolitan area. Princess Alice brought to the marriage good looks, charm, cultured sophistication and good business sense.

Dimitrie Berea was a "typical artist". He wore his heart on his sleeve, was a romantic, was religious, loved people-especially beautiful women, lived his life to paint and had his head in the stars while his feet never touched the ground. He was an incompetent money manager and seemed always to be in debt. When Princess Alice married him (May 25, 1972) she essentially served as a manager of his talents, both painting and money, a role assumed by Saskia to Rembrandt. Princess Alice described the marriage as "an unbelievably chaotic adventure". Their bliss was cut short by Dimitrie’s death to colon cancer (January 14, 1975) in Paris. After a Latin mass at the Madeleine he was interred in Paris’ Père Lachaise Cemetery. Dimitrie’s remaining art works became the property of Princess Alice after a contested will. Many works were sold, but the remaining oil paintings and all the drawings, watercolors and prints are to be given to Berea College.


Berea as a Painter

Various literati, patrons and gallery owners have written about Berea as a painter.

N. N. Tonitza (Bucharest, 1934) said:
"Berea lives in continual contact with nature and lets himself be charmed by its intimate chromatic melodies. What a simplicity is in his means of expression and what a luminous Latin smile is in everything he paints!"

George Opresco (Bucharest, 1935) wrote:
"In a great number of his paintings one feels the voluptuousness of the art, a direct manner, particularly sincere in attacking the subject, a will and a force in front of it."

Michele Biancale (Rome, 1942) said of his paintings:
"His color decorates voluptuously with chromatic rhapsodies of a great audacity, especially in portraits and in still life, opulent, pompous and extremely rich in pigment."

Maximilien Gauthier (Paris art critic, 1947) said:
"On meeting this young man one has the feeling that he is a bohemian incapable of work and ready to play pranks upon one. Bohemian he is not. He eyes with particular distrust the theories expounded on pictorial art; ...he has gone beyond ephemeral theories of uncertain future. He has a healthy artistic mind; he does not imitate the snobs of our world who are always in search of the new. Berea is always one with nature and lets himself be charmed by the music of color. His work is lit with a Latin delight; he is a son of the Mediterranean. [He sings with a poetic beauty that could be likened to Claude Monet.] The liveliness born in his palette owes something to Renoir and Manet; but he is not an impressionist. His arabesques have style. The material/motifs he paints are full of strength and feeling and as smooth as silk. At first Berea’s paintings are not unfamiliar to us, but his most binding virtues arise from a more secret source - a conception of life lived with great warmth, whose essential sensuality impregnates all thought behind it."

Andre Warnod (Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, Paris, 1949) said:
"Maurice Denis [a Fauve – Symbolist painter] considered that an autodidactic experience should be followed by a great spiritual and technical molding, inspired by the feeling that the works of the Ancients were once new. To pass through Italy establishes oneself on the firm ground of yesterday’s culture. Surely an Italian schooling is indispensable for discipline in construction, orderliness of conception, balance, clarity and firmness of technique. A classical training is the only basis for a sound development. During the tragic war years, Berea had time to think and to try to solve the problems which confront the young painter in quest of an ideal. He well knows that aesthetic speculations are only valid in the measure in which they are defended, brush in hand. The only thing that counts is the temperament of the artist, the wealth of his soul. A mason’s worth is to be seen in his work."

Maximilien Gauthier (Paris, 1951) said:
"His colors have both excitement and clarity; his palette is full of personality; and his blues, in particular, are his alone. Berea’s paintings have a charming and lively sensitivity that combine both strength and beauty. [They are revelations of sincere passion.] Fernand Leger, latter day Cubist, does not inspire in me unreserved enthusiasm. I do not believe, as Leger believes, in the complete change of our visual climate, under the influence of machines and other diverse characteristics of modern life. I admit for instance that the metal trellis of high tension pylons has changed some landscapes. Nature itself has not changed and certain melodious values, as for instance the splendors of Venice, will never cease to touch us. It seems to me a dangerous error to attach more importance in art to the realities of the outer rather than the inner world. Berea planted his easel bravely before the great churches and secular structures of Venice never fearing comparison with certain memories. He would concede nothing to the absurd superstition of the new."

Terrence Mullally (London, 1953) said:
"Berea has the ability to capture the essential feeling of different cities; anyone who has loved and entered Rome, Paris, Florence, London or Venice will derive deep pleasure from his paintings."

In Berea’s own Venice Manifesto 1951, he wrote:
"Art alone knows categorical imperatives. The artist creates whilst in communion with Man. His work is a way of expression, by means of which humanity can attain the high reaches of the spirit. Thus the value of a work of art is related to the sincerity of the artist, and to the quality of his own spirit. It is in this communion that he fulfils himself. The eternal quest for oneself in art is ultimately simply an attempt to let one’s own spirit reveal and express itself.

Art is a divine function and the artist is a missionary. He should therefore speak a language which will make him understood. I believe that a work of art in order to be complete must possess a function. So true is this, that throughout history artists have sacrificed their lives so that the masses might come in contact with the Divinity. That is why one can deny all merit to a form of art which remains outside the human sphere. I speak not only of abstract art but also of Surrealism which uses a current tongue in order to mislead.

A revolution which does not, unlike Impressionism, Symbolism and Expressionism, become a tradition after one or two generations, is no revolution. But here we have one which has lasted fifty years and does not appear to want to stop.

I believe in healthy art, of high spiritual content, which finds an echo neither in the spinal column nor in the solar plexus, an art clear and legible to all, and one that does not depart from its ethical function, which is its only ‘raison d’être’. Let us then re-establish free contact between the public and the work of art, by courageously delivering it from formulae in an esoteric tongue."

Pierre Cabanne (Paris, 1963) wrote: "[In Berea’s paintings] lie the conquest of space, where people and objects have autonomy bestowed upon them for the sheer delight of composing a kind of transfigured reality – the picture. Art is memory beautified by retrospect. Berea calls the inanimate to life and makes all things deliver their poetic essence. His paintings are filled with pervading human harmony and subtle relationships between the landscape and the enigmatic grace of his figures.

To paint, for Berea, was to reach the marvelous inherent in a certain mode of being, loved and apprehended as discovered and loved with undiminished wonderment in lifelong faithfulness. One of the powers of art, that other-sightedness, is to show us how greatly we are prisoners of the chosen, privileged few, appointed to carry our view of things into the heart of their mystery.

His paintings are as devoid of arrière-pensée as of any partisan intention. It is to be understood exactly as what it is. An inward elegance, a natural verve and grace are there conferred upon the faces of men and women and upon life’s innumerable scenes. Indeed, color, with Berea sings, vibrates, resounds and shimmers in light. In Mediterranean landscapes, flower-decked balconies at Cannes, brilliant and opulent still-lives, fruits in ripe bloom that calls for that velvet blue which is all his own, Berea’s melodic quality appears in its exquisite refinement. His pictures of the South of France betray his debt to the Impressionists – to Renoir, to Bonnard, to Matisse. He is a revealer and purveyor of happiness."

In Connoisseur, December 1963, M.-L. D’Otrange Mastai wrote:
"The art of Berea had been justly and happily characterized as a ‘synthesis of Impressionism and Fauvism’, combining as it does the warm luminosity of the first with the untamed power of the second. Berea is indeed the artistic heir of Impressionism through Bonnard and of Fauvism through Matisse. The magic of color is Berea’s chief gift – many see in it Slavic temperament and Latin blood. He has long been heralded as the foremost interpreter of the Midi, which he renders with a chromatic generosity that is appropriate to the lush beauty of the region. …He has added the fervor of the sun [and] the vibrancy of Meridional light to the accustomed pigments on his palette. In his color vocabulary, green, rose and blue are not merely that, but green-drenched with light, rose permeated with sunglow, and blue seen through fathoms of pure Mediterranean water. His skies are crystalline and illimitable, his fruits are heavy and fragrant and his flowers fill the room with an almost too heady perfume. Berea’s paintings lead us to reflect that the priceless gift Impressionism made to the world was not the development of a new technique. Impressionism remains beloved because it served to perpetuate with rare perfection a vision of la douceur de vivre, of a rational and harmonious Eden that seemed all too certainly and tantalizingly out of our own reach."

John Devoluy, in the New York Herald Tribune (Paris, ND) said: "his work is personal, sprightly, deft and charming…"



The paintings in the Berea College, KY, Collection indicate with great vitality Dimitrie Berea’s excitement with brushwork and intensity of color. The viewer can examine the paintings for the process and marks made by Berea’s hand, but one can also feel the emotion of the moment and the "flavorings" of the site or sitter. As critics and journalist have enumerated, it is his color that catches the eye. As a member of the "Paris School" he truly does marry the color of Impressionism with that of the wild seemingly uncontrolled energy of the Fauves. From interviews you would learn that he tended to be timid, shy and almost child-like but came fully alive with a sitter and brush and palette in hand. He was charming and vivacious; he was in his element. He was also single minded in his choice of the beautiful and spoke out against and would not paint the abstract or ugly. Landscapes dominate his early work, but his productive years in America are in large part portraits. He had an entrée and market in Hollywood, Palm Beach, Miami and New York. From a scan of a list of owners and collections it becomes quickly evident he is represented in virtually every major European museum, state collection and private royal collection.

Berea College is fortunate in the great quantities of drawings and watercolors in its collection. It is through these images that some sense of his artistic development can be traced as well as his globetrotting. Berea used virtually any marking instrument or ground on which to mark. His drawings and even watercolors can be found on café menus, newsprint, cardboard, artist board or high quality rag papers. He was obsessed with mark making. Often, as with Edgar Degas, he chose a tool that not only made a mark but also left a line of color. Drawings exist that also have watercolor washes over them that allowed the mark to bleed. Berea sought all manner of tool by which to express himself.

Berea College’s large collection of Dimitrie Berea is illustrative of passionate energy, rich saturated color and quantity of images. We possess the largest number of images by him in the world and are the repository of his papers and records, all a generous gift of Princess Alice Gureilli Berea Terres.

1908 Dimitrie Berea was born in Bacau, Romania on November 2. His mother a painter, his father, a lawyer.
1927-1932 Student at the Acedemy of Architecture, Bucharest.
1930 In Bucharest, together with Theodorescu-Sion, his then master, founded on the earliest academies of nonconformist painting, "Ileana."
1932 Show at the Academy of Architecture's annual art exhibition, Bucharest.
1934 The Prize of Bucharest's official Salon, where his works have hung regularly since 1928, is awarded to his portrait of Mlle. L.S. First one-man show at Bucharest's Dalles Gallery.
1936 One-man show at Lapusneanu Galleries in Jassy, the Moldave Country's chief town, and at Casino Galleries in the great Romanian harbor Constantza, inaugurated by Queen Mary of Romania.
1937 Leaves on invitation for Rome, with a special bursary from the Italian government. Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
1938 Prix de Rome. Exhibition at the Romanian Academy of Prix de Rome.
1939 Decisive meeting with Marie Fontaine-Desjardins, chief muse of the Impressionists. In dedicating to her his first postwar exhibition at the Galerie Allard in Paris, Berea pays grateful homage to the Egeria with whom and through whom he has known Matisse, Van Dongen, Andre' Lhote and above all Bonnard, who he considers his real master.
1940 Exhibition in Rome at the Galeria delle Belle Arte inaugurated by King Vittorio Emmanuelle III.
1941 Exhibition at Milan, Galeria del Duomo, opened by the Minister of Fine Arts.
1942 Receives diploma from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Important one-man exhibition in Rome at the Palazzo Lancellotto opened by the minister of National Education.
1943 Returns to Bucharest as successful candidate for appointments as director and curator of the Aman Museum.
1944 Exhibition at the Kretzulescu Gallery's Caminul Artei.
1946 Returns to Paris for the exhibition dedicated to Marie Fontaine-Desjardins at the Galerie Allard.
1947 Exhibitions at the Athenee, Geneva and at Chichio Haller's, Zurich. Meeting with Leon-Paul Fargues, Lucien Fabre, Alain Bedel and Gerard Bauer of whom the artist paints well-known portraits, as one of the literary Tout --- Paris.
1948 Exhibitions held at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, round the portrait of Leon-Paul Fargues: "Visages de Paris"; Galerie Lanmark, "Montmartre Landscapes"; and Fine Arts Gallery of Geneva.
1949 At another exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, Andre Warnod presents his book Berea.
1950 Shows portraits at Herve's, Butte de Monmarte. Roland Dorgeles speaks of Berea as one of the first portraitists of our time, beside Kisling and Dongen. Exhibition at the Andre Weil Gallery, Paris.
1951 Exhibitions-M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris and Galeria Cavalino, Venice by Cardazzo- later called "Venice Manifesto," which will be a book under the same title, prefaced y Maximilien Gauthier. At the exhibition "Landscapes of Venice," Galerie d'Arte Hispanique, Paris, the artist presents and signs the first edition of the "Venice Manifesto."
1952 Exhibition at the Circolo de las Bellas Artes, Madrid. Also an exhibition at the Galerias Layetanas, Barcelona, where the "Venice Manifesto," translated into Catalan, is discussed with ardor and violence at the celebrated cenacle Los Trascaccios. At the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, an exhibition "Bonnard, Vuillard, Berea," allows Berea to view his works side by side with those of his masters.
1953 Invited by the British Government, Berea shows canvasses inspired by London decorated for the Coronation at Tooth & Son, London.
1954 At the O'Hana Gallery, London, an exhibition, "Visions de France et d'Angleterre," is opened by the Duchess of Kent. Berea meets Winston Churchill at 10 Downing Street, a political group having given the Premier one of his major works for an 80th birthday present. Exhibitions at Casino Gallery, Vichy and at the Edinburgh Festival, Whystock & Reid's.
1955 Exhibitions at Moulins Museum and at Cannes, with Matisse and Picasso, Gallery 65.
1956 Exhibitions at M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune as part of "Hommage a Bonnard" and Rohr Volmar's Galerie des Remparts, Venice and Paris.
1957 "Vernissage Author d'un portrait," at Hannah Becker von Rath's Kunstkabinet, Frankfurt/Main preceded by a lecture by the artist: "Art confronted by the abstract and the creative phenomenon."
1958 Meets Picasso at Cannes. Show at the Galerie du Belier --"Berea in the land of Picasso" with a lecture by the artist on the faux-pas in art. The Grand Prix Salondu Portrait is awarded by a jury of notables and art critics to Berea.
1959 The decorator, Chaurand, at Cannes, presents Berea canvasses on the theme "The work of art in its proper setting, creates atmosphere and climate."
1960 Recent works show at Domenico's, Cannes. "A Hundred Pictures by Berea," at M.M.J.H. Bernheim-Jeune, marked by a commemorative booklet with a reproduction in facsimile of a handwritten "profession of faith" by the artist. Official meeting with the Prince and Princess of Monaco in Berne. The occasion is the ceremony at which Prince Rainer presents the President acquired by the Principality.
1961 Invited to exhibit at Monte-Carlo, Galerie Rauch. Berea receives the Grand-Prix, hors concours, of the International Salon of Modern Art, Paris. Exhibition at Acquavella Gallery, New York.
1963 Double exhibition --- Paris and London. Recent works. Seven pictures of London during the Coronation, a gift from Berea to the nation, are placed on exhibition at Guildhall.
1964 Inauguration of his great mural: "Hommage a Paris" triptych which represents the monumental symbols of the "Paris Universal Exhibitions": Eiffel Tower, Alexander IIIrd Bridge and the Grand Palais at the Club of The Top of the Fair, New York.
1965 Exhibition at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco.
1966 Exhibition Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco.
1967 Exhibition Palm Beach Gallery, Palm Beach.
1973 Exhibition Poinciana Gallery, Palm Beach and Service Culturel -- Ambassade de France, New York. Major exhibition at The Eric Galleries, New York.
1975 Dimitrie Berea dies in Paris of Cancer.
1990 Retrospective Exhibition of the Berea collection at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, New York.
1991 Major Museum Retrospective at the Musee de Villefranche, France. Exhibition of selected works from 1941 to 1970, Ergane Gallery, New York.
Biography Credit: Robert Boyce, Berea College
2009 Muzeul Municipiului Bucuresti - Expozitia "Necunoscutul DIMITRIE BEREA" org. SCAR

***

"Un pictor uitat pe-o etajera. In Occident"

Sebastian Amza - Ziarul Financiar Ziarul de Duminica 06.11.2009

Printre nenumaratele disconforturi ancestrale cu care se nasc romanii, se gaseste si o senzatie stranie de exil. Oriunde s-ar afla. De aceea, ei se asaza greu (unii intampina dificultati chiar si in tara lor de bastina, dar asta e alta problema!). Iar, atunci cand o fac, o fac cu teama, cu nepricepere si sunt precauti pana la Dumnezeu, de teama sa nu cada iarasi in silnicie. In plus, le mai vine o dandana: sunt loviti in crestetul inimii, ca o leuca, de complexul "celor doua luntri". Sau, daca vreti mai savant, "A quoi bon avoir quitte Coasta Boacii?

". Altminteri, ei se lasa disciplinati de forta exemplului (in fratie cu genuinul personal!) si, drept urmare, devin respectuosi din cale-afara cu ordinea si cu bunastarea (doar o minoritate, mai prapastioasa de felul ei, a contat, izolata in mansarde, mai mult pe solemnitatea gandurilor negre!).
Se intampla insa prin nu se stie ce mecanisme bizare ale destinului - istoria departarilor noastre a demonstrat-o deseori - ca unii din cei plecati in bejenie sa fie nememorati. Trecuti nemeritat la cea mai brutala rubrica a existentei, la "si altii".
Un astfel de caz este cel al pictorului Dimitrie Berea (1908-1975)*, traitor de felul lui in Romania, Italia, Elvetia, Franta, Statele Unite. Cetatean al lumii, care, daca-i aflam viata si-i citim opera, ne dam seama ca nu doar asa, de-un pamplezir, a fost inscris in cataloagele universale sub numele de Demetre de Berea. Ca nu degeaba una dintre cele mai mari si valoroase colectii Berea din lume se gaseste astazi in galeria Colegiului din oraselul Berea (!), Kentuky, USA. Sau ca fara emfaza s-a considerat el insusi pupilul lui Bonnard, pe care l-a cunoscut in 1939, in salonul muzei impresionistilor, Marie Fontaine-Desjardins... Pricinile sunt insa mult mai multe decat putem noi sa descalcim in biografia fabuloasa a lui Dimitrie Berea. Un vrai spectacle!
Nascut la Bacau, in ziua de 2 noiembrie 1908 (iata ca, in curand, centenarului sau i se adauga inca un an!) - tata: avocat-politician, mama: pictorita, absolventa de "Beaux Arts" si provenind dintr-o familie cu generatii de artisti - tanarul Dimitrie pleaca la varsta de 19 ani la Bucuresti. Acolo, ca student la Arhitectura si Arte, se formeaza in preajma lui Theodorescu-Sion, impreuna cu care, apoi, fondeaza o academie de arta non-conformista si progresista, numita "Ileana". In anii '30, devine cel mai promitator tanar artist plastic al Romaniei. In 1937, primeste o bursa din partea statului italian si pleaca la Roma, la Academia Regala de Arte Frumoase, unde studiaza pictura, arta decorativa, sculptura, scenografia si grafica. Dupa numeroase expozitii de grup si personale - in acest rastimp calatoreste si sta o vreme la Paris, unde intra in contact cu cercurile impresioniste si fauviste (cu Bonnard si Vuillard, cu Matisse si Van Dongen), apropiindu-se foarte mult de Bonnard, pe care-l considera "nasul" sau - Berea absolva Belle Artele din Roma, cu diploma la toate cele cinci discipline. Are acum 34 de ani. In vara anului 1942, expune o personala la Palazzo Lancellotto din Roma, unde este lansat, concomitent, volumul "Berea", avandu-l ca autor pe poetul si istoricul de arta Mario Rivosecchi. Anul urmator, se intoarce in Romania, unde este numit director si curator al Muzeului Th. Aman, continuand in acelasi timp sa expuna. Astfel ca in 1944, uimeste lumea artelor din Bucuresti cu o noua personala, la Caminul Artei-Kretzulescu, cu un volum de prezentare scris de Giuseppe Galassi, Antonio Petrucci si S.A. Luciani. Aflat intr-o simpatie periculoasa fata de miscarea politica de dreapta, Berea este obligat, fireste, sa paraseasca Romania in 1946. Dar opera sa ramane. Astfel ca in 1949, pe vremuri tulburi, apare o noua carte despre el, semnata de asta data de André Warnod, care, nu putin lucru pentru istoria picturii universale, sustine ca Berea este "noul apostol" al "scolii de la Paris" (denominare instaurata in 1925, in cartea sa "Les Berceaux de la nouvelle peinture").
Un moment important din cariera sa este "Manifestul de la Venetia", lansat in 1951, in care Dimitrie Berea inscrie credo-ul sau despre arta, in general si ale carui idei vor fi subiectele conferintelor de mai tarziu cu care va cutreiera lumea: "Opera de arta si cadrul ei specific" (un fel de political correctness in arta!), "Profesiunea increderii", "Atmosfera si climat", "Fenomenul creativ".
Odata cu capatarea cetateniei franceze, in 1950, pentru Berea practic lumea nu mai are margini. Calatoreste, expune, lucreaza de-o maniera prodigioasa si, ca urmare conturile devin considerabile. Ajunge rasfatatul vedetelor de la Hollywood si pictorul lor oficial, este cautat de capetele incoronate ale lumii (portretele lor semnate "Berea" sunt piesele de rezistenta ale Almanahului de la Gotha!), oamenii politici la moda, scriitori de succes si tot felul de oficialitati dau navala in atelierul ori in apartamentele sale din Paris, New York City si San Francisco. Ocupa "pietele" din Paris, New York, Miami, Palm Beach, San Francisco, Hollywood. Altfel, "Berea" este o legitimatie spre nemurire.
Povestea femeilor sale este la fel de fascinanta. Dupa ce divorteaza de prima sotie, de care se indragostise mortal in timpul retrospectivei de succes gazduita de De Young Museum din San Francisco, Dimitrie Berea se insoara, in 1972, cu Alice Gurielli. Mai degraba, printesa Alice Gurielli, caci era nepoata ultimului rege al Georgiei, care, dupa ce guvernul comunist ii confiscase toata averea, a pornit sa peregrineze prin lume (ajungand si prin Romania, de unde a plecat in 1966!) si, finalmente, a poposit in America. Aici a lucrat mai intai ca sofer de taxi in New York, avea statut de refugiat roman sponsorizat de Biserica Ortodoxa, locuia in Harlem si era angajata cu ziua la diverse familii din comunitatea romaneasca, sfarsind prin a ajunge, in 1969, menajera si secretara la casa celebrului pictor. Mariajul lor a durat aproape trei ani, pentru ca, in 14 ianuarie 1975, Dimitrie Berea se stinge la Paris. Dupa o emotionanta slujba de pomenire in limba latina la Catedrala Madeleine, este inmormantat in Cimitirul Pere-Lachaise. Avea doar 67 de ani, era faimos si cunoscut mai mult in lume decat in tara sa de bastina.
Sotia a mostenit, dupa nu putine peripetii, intreaga avere si uriasul patrimoniu ale lui Dimitrie Berea. A vandut o buna parte din tablouri, dar ajunsese ca nu stia cum sa se mai descurce cu restul. Pana cand a aflat din ziar ca in statul Kentuky (SUA) exista un orasel numit Berea(!), fara ca ea sa stie ca aici, candva, pictorul realizase cateva portrete expuse cu fast in galeria de onoare a colegiului. Drept urmare, printesa Alice face acestuia o donatie extraordinara, fondand astfel cea mai mare colectie din lume a pictorului roman (in 2003, a fost inaugurat un muzeu modern, cu titulatura: Dimitrie Berea Gallery-Berea College-Berea (KY)-USA... convingerea este pe net!).
Pentru expozitia de la Palatul sutu, s-au gasit 29 de tablouri din colectiile din tara si strainatate...Putin, e adevarat, dar esantionul este reprezentativ. Cotata, aflam, la preturi europene de nu mai mult de 3.000 de euro, in timp ce pe piata americana se situeaza intre 8 si 40.000 de dolari (spre exemplu, cunoscutul portret "Salvador Dali in Paris"(1968) s-a vandut cu aprox. 20.000 de dolari!), pictura lui Dimitrie Berea se asaza pe coordonatele estetice al "scolii de la Paris". Cantonata undeva, intre doua curente mari ale secolului 20. Iata ce scria M.-L. D'Otrange Mastai, in 1963: "Pe drept cuvant, arta lui Berea a fost caracterizata ca o sinteza a Impresionismului cu Fauvismul, combinand luminozitatea calda a primului cu puterea salbatica a celui de-al doilea. Intr-adevar, el melanjeaza magistral mostenirea artistica a lui Bonnard cu cea a lui Matisse ". Sau Pierre Cabanne, tot in 1963, in cartea sa, "Pictura lui Berea": "Berea ademeneste neinsufletitul ca sa-i dea viata, facand astfel ca toate lucrurile sa irizeze, dezvaluindu-si esenta lor poetica". Din pacate, Dimitrie Berea s-a stins inainte ca noi sa-l fi cunoscut intrutotul. Hiatusul marcat de cele aproape trei decenii de absenta din Romania l-a condamnat, la noi, la o necuvenita (si necuviincioasa, totodata!) uitare in memoria publica. A noastra, sa fim bine intelesi, caci Occidentul tine mereu langa el, la indemana, borcanul cu "Lecitina"!
* - "Necunoscutul" Dimitrie Berea, Muzeul Municipiului Bucuresti, expozitie organizata de S.C.A.R. in perioada 5-30 oct 2009 (vezi si www.scar.ro)