Ion Pacea

(7 September 1924, Horopani, Macedonia (Greece) – 13 August 1999, Bucharest, Romania)

Ion Pacea was a Romanian painter and honorary member of the Romanian Academy, widely regarded as one of the most important colorists of modern Romanian painting. His oeuvre encompasses landscapes, still lifes, seascapes, interiors, and abstract compositions where vibrant color and confident brushwork define a personal synthesis of figuration and abstraction.

Pacea studied at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts and the Free Academy “Guguianu” in Bucharest, where he was taught by masters including Camil Ressu, Jean Alexandru Steriadi, and Alexandru Ciucurencu. He made his debut at the Official Salon in Bucharest in 1947 and went on to build a strong national and international presence through numerous solo and group exhibitions in cities such as Paris, Berlin, Prague, Dresden, Edinburgh, Washington, Munich, Moscow, and Sofia.

His work is noted for its solid figurative foundation anchored in European painting traditions, and for a later evolution toward imagery wherein color and form enter an expressive dialogue. Pacea’s paintings are celebrated for their chromatic richness, clarity of contour, and dynamic compositional balance.

Over his long career, he received multiple national awards, including the Ion Andreescu Prize of the Romanian Academy (1963), the Painting Prize (1965), and the Grand Prize of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania (UAP) (1967). He also appeared occasionally in Romanian films, notably in Bietul Ioanide (1980) directed by Dan Pița.

Ion Pacea’s legacy retains a significant place in the narrative of 20th-century Romanian art, as both a colorist of exceptional sensitivity and a bridge between representational tradition and abstract expression.