Paul Neagu

Considered one of the most important Romanian artists, Paul Neagu (1938-2004) had lived and worked in London since 1971 until his death. Neagu's philosophical approach to his work led him to push the boundaries of abstraction that he first discovered clandestinely in Communist Romania. Having used his own body as a medium in his performance of "ritual" events, he often referred to embodied experience. He promoted physical engagement with his work: his palpable objects and tactile boxes deliberately invited touch (Palpable Art Manifesto, 1969). Tactility indeed underlines one of Neagu's enduring aims: to refute what he perceived as the primacy of visuality within art. His ritualized performances thus often left a trail of sculptural objects and created immersive, sensory experiences. 
Always informed by his experience of conflict, and a desire to express the paramount importance of the spirit in the modern world, his works command an intensely visceral response. In 1972 he established the Generative Art Group, encompassing five fictitious members, with each alias representing a different part of his creative psyche. Neagu's assertion that sculpture could be used as a symbolic language led him to explore his vision (the "hyphen" concept) across media, scale, and spiritual boundaries throughout his career. 
Neagu spent his early years living under Stalinist military occupation in Bucharest. He studied at the Bucharest Institute of Fine Arts before moving to London in 1971 and had his first museum show at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1975. Neagu was a well-respected teacher, most notably lecturing at the Slade and the Chelsea School of Art, and in 1976 became Associate Professor at the Royal College of Art. Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor count among his students.