Francisc Șirato

Francisc Sirato ( born August 13, 1877 in Craiova / Romania; † August 4, 1953 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian painter, illustrator, author and university professor.

Life and work

Francisc Sirato is born in a family originating from the Banat. He trained in a letterpress workshop in Craiova, Romania. From 1898 to 1899 he worked in a lithography workshop in Dusseldorf, to then return to Romania and to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest 1900-1905. He quickly became a sought-after illustrator for newspapers and magazines and is known for its polemical nature and its conciseness in its geometric and energetic style. He also had several exhibitions with his paintings. In particular, in the context of the artists' association Arta Română. Since 1916 he also wrote art criticism.

Since 1926 Sirato was with the painters Nicolae Tonitza and Ştefan Dimitrescu and the sculptor Oscar Han member of the Romanian artist group Grupul Arcelor Patru ( in German: " Group of Four "), a famous Romanian Prostestgruppe against the rigid standards of rigid academic art concepts and for the spread of modern art in Romania. After 1930 he focused his art on the efficacy of light: painting with chromatic liquid; comparable to that of Pierre Bonnard. In 1933 he became professor of drawing and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1939 he retired. Sirato died on 4 August 1953 at the age of 75 in Bucharest.