Paul Neagu

Paul Neagu (1938-2004), born in Bucharest, was a British-Romanian sculptor, painter, performance artist, teacher and poet.

Neagu graduated from Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts, Bucharest in 1965, where the syllabus prioritised figurative painting over abstraction and sculpture. Soon after completing his studies however, Neagu turned his attention to sculpture, and in particular to making boxes that he described as ‘strange mixed media objects’. Portable and scaled to the body, these were designed to be opened, pushed and pulled – each one demanding an active, tactile encounter.

In 1969 Neagu travelled to the UK supported by the Edinburgh gallerist Richard Demarco. He settled in London the following year, where he remained for the next thirty-four years, continuing to push the boundaries of sculpture with works that were tactile, edible and performative.

Paul Neagu’s work has been exhibited internationally including at the Paris Biennale, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein; Gallery K in Tokyo and Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana. UK presentations of his work have been mounted at Modern Art Oxford, Whitechapel Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Galleries, the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) and the Tate. The artist’s work can also be found in many permanent collections including The Arts Council Collection, London; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; The Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds; The National Museum of Art, Bucharest; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.