Famous painter Medi Dinu dies at 107

Famous Romanian painter Margareta (Medi) Wechsler Dinu died at 107, announced the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania- the Mosaic Cult (FCER-CM) on Monday.

“For the Jewish community, her death means not only saying good bye to one of the most important female artists of the past century, but also to an ambassador of the Jewish modern art,” said Aurel Vainer, FCER president.

According to the above-mentioned source, the long-lived artist, who reached the honorable age of 107, dedicated her life to art until the end. She varnished her last exhibition, “The Youth Ages” within an anniversary event on March 8.

Medi (Margareta) Wechsler Dinu, born on December 22, 1908, at Brezoi, Valcea County (southwestern Romania), was daughter of the musician Amalia (Lili) Wechsler and accountant Daniel Wechsler. She finished high school in Bucharest at Choisi Mangru Finishing School where she learned French, the 4^th language she speaks, next to German, Romanian and Magyar.  As a student, she had the chance to learn from important painters and art teachers of the time, such as Ipolit Strâmbulescu and Jean Al. Steriadi who have considered her to be the most talented of the class. She takes her degree at Belle Arte School in 1932.

She signs up in Mathematics University where she has as teacher Dan Barbilian (pen name Ion Barbu, also a Romanian poet) and in parallel she takes lectures in Philosophy University where she studied with Dimitri Gusti and Nae Ionescu (he guided philosophers Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran and Constantin Noica).

In 1934 she has the opportunity to go and paint for a month in Balchic at the Romanian artists’ house of creation. She remains forever in love with Balchik, (the same as Queen Maria of Romania) and this can be seen in her paintings.  She meets the most of the older painters who worked in Balchik, Iser, Darascu, Lucian Grigorescu, etc.

Read more about Medi Dinu here.