Christopher Georgesco – First-Generation Romanian-American Sculptor – (b. 1950, Nebraska)
Christopher’s parents fled Communist Romania in the nick of time, in 1948, literally with the last boat, just as the Iron Curtain was coming down and before Romania turned into a huge prison-state and the country’s elite was going to perish in Soviet-style gulags, or die in the harshest prisons, their bodies thrown into unmarked graves.
Christopher’s father Haralamb Georgesco (1908-1977) was part of this very professional elite targeted by the new regime which was installed by the Soviet occupation armies: he was a famous architect and associate of Horia Creanaga and had a thriving and successful architect’s practice in Bucharest. Amogst Haralamb Georgesco’s clients figured the young King Michael of Romania, the industrialist Malaxa to name just two patrons. Georgesco left behind in Romania a heritage of modernist architecture which stands out, some 80 years on as one of the world’s most inspired buildings of that period. Yet political circumstance forced Haralamb Georgesco and his beautiful wife to flee Romania at the peak of his success and arrive in New York as a penniless immigrant. Starting from scratch in middle age was far from easy in his adoptive country, but he struggled on valiantly first by taking a University teaching job and gradually receiving private commissions both in the USA and abroad. Two years after their arrival their only son Christopher was born.
Christopher Georgesco (2008): "Yellow camber Right", Beverly Hills, Ca
Like his father, Christopher is a talented and inspired artist: he attended the Santa Monica City College in 1968 and by the age of 20 he part took in his first group show. At the age of 28 Christopher had his first one-man show. Subsequently and with great determination he put his mark on the Californian and the International artistic map, with an impressive array of monumental sculptures:
"Installation View" (Painted Stainless Steel by Christopher Georgesco), private Collection, Bel Air, Ca, (by kind permission)
Grand Hyatt Hotel., Tokyo. Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, La Jolla Musem of Contemporary Art, CA, Laguna Beach Museum of Contemporary Art, CA, Santa Barabra Museum of Art, CA, University of California Los Angeles, CA, University of California Santa Barbara, CA, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA, Plaza Pasadena, City of Pasadena, CA, Valley Presbyterian Hospital, Los Angeles, CA, King World Productions, Merv Griffin, Los Angeles, CA, Knapp Communicatons, Los Angeles,CA, McCrory Corporate, New York, NY, Raychem Copporation, Los Angeles, CA, Sea Horse Corporate, Manzanillo, Mexico, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, “Oasis of the Sea”, Installation Finland, Princes Cruise Lines, Installation Italy, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Washington, DC, City of Palm Springs, CA
Stainless Steel, Split Plane Sculpture by Christopher Georgesco (by kind permission)
Proud to hear/see that a romanian id enchanting with his art the americans.I think he has a little Brancusi influence ,but is very much his own artist.
My First Show at Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, was followed up with a show at L.A.C.M.A. 1976-1980 and was reviewed by art critic William Wilson from the L.A. Times 1977. He compaired me to a couple L.A. Artist, Guy Dill and Robert Irwin and made a connection when he compaired me to a Cubist Version of Brancusi.
He followed the review up and ended with the question, Was this work frozen in it’s own Formula or can a Vocabulary like this sustain itself and stay alive? As it stands we must admit that the work is really very good. So this is not the first comparison to Brancusi I have heard.
I attended Art History for 2 years at Santa Monica City College. When it came to Modern Art they primarly taught the Old Standards like Miro, Piccasso or Kandinsky. They even went into months of Titian and Tintareto-Mattise and the rest of the bunch. Followed by months on the Sistine Chapel and Micael Angelo etc.
Brancusi must have had one picture of his sculpture “The Bird in Flight”, in a book of 650 pages or more.
Colleges in the 60’s in America were not concentrating on more Reductive types Art such as Brancusi and his influence on Minmalism and Minimal Abstraction the niche in which I fit most comfortably. The artist from the New American Avant Garde, starting maybe with Jackson Pollack I supose were not extensively taught, but glossed over.
New Art History School Book for the whole School Systyem yearly was not practical to update yearly. The New art Art of the 1950’s and 1960 and much earlier works such as Brancusi where not a central Focus. In escence I really had little knowlege or influence from Brancusi as I know of.
I think I was more influenced by the Los Angeles Art Scene and what was happening in New York around the time I began making art full time. .
If any of my works remind you of Brancusi it is not a intensional. It has most likely has been transferred to me through my Romanian Blood or Osmosis from my Father Brain Waves, as he never really never talked about himself, which made this Exhibition in Romania such a suprise.
I had no idea what he had done in the Old Country or how influential his work was in Romania..
My father noted Romanian /American Architect Haralamb Haralan Georgescu, “Bubi” designed 2 Romanian Orthodox Churches in America for $1 each as it was required to write a amount for his architectual services on the Building Contracts.
He must have recieved points in Heaven for building these Churches for no money of this I am sure. I always have believed he has left his impressions on me through his work and possably he is pulling my strings to follow in his Romanian foot steps which may account for any connection of my work to Brancusi…….I’m am sure Brancusi would have been one of his first choices of my Fathers now looking back.
I must say Brancusi through his reductive style, using the Pedistal as his primary focus of subject matter became the father of Minimal Art and far more reductive modes of Art today, not only in America but in Europe as well.
So with that said, I want to thank you for your comments. I will take my Newly found Fondness of my Romanian Roots found on my recent visit to Bucharest for my Fathers Exhibition at the Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, to which I was accompanied by Wim de Wit from the Getty Research Institute from here in California.
Part of my Fathers archives are now in the Getty Research Center, California along with the majority being perserved by the Mincu University in Bucharest.
If by any chance you are interested in seeing more of My Work or my Fathers Architecture, including the Book from the show at Mincu which recieved The Award of Best Architectual Book of the Year in 2008,
“A Romanian Architect in America”.
Please visit my Website at:
http://www.georgescoart.com.
I have intensionaly linked my Website with my Fathers, to Honor him and for my Thankfulness for his Guidence and Support, not to mention the encouragement he gave me to follow my Talents in and about Art and the Freedom it has aloted me..
He said I would always be free and never have anyone tell me what to do in my Life if I stick to my guns and beleve in my work. For this I keep him close to me always.
One of the parts my Father did not like about Architecture was The Client., and again I Thank him for showing me the foot steps into creativity.
My trip to Bucharest to see my Fathers Exhibit on his Centenial Birthday has changed me giving me a New found Love of my Roots in Romania and The Orthodox Church..
I also want to thank the Mincu University and Mr Cornelliu Ghenciulescu head of the University for giving my father his well deserved Exhibit and inviting me to Bucharest for my first trip to Romania A chance to see some of my Fathers Buildings and walk the same streets in my Father foot steps as he did the first half of his life.
I would also like to thank Codina Dusoiu, Mr Ghenciulesu’s Director for being so kind to translate and accompany me to see “The Endless Column”, “The Table of Silence” and “The Arch of the Kiss, Brancusi’s greatest Monumental Works.
Multumesc for your Comments,
Christopher Georgesco
I find Christopher Georgesco’s sculptures to be Fresh and well thought out. I like the transitions he nakes from series to series demonstrated in the pictures above. So many artists seem to find niche and never change. Bravo for your inspird sculpture.