THE WINNER OF THE  2003
DOBELL PRIZE FOR DRAWING

is
 
AIDA TOMESCU
 
for her work
Negru III and Negru IV (A candle in a dark room)

It was announced today, Thursday, 11 September 2003, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales that Aida Tomescu has won the 2003 Dobell Prize for Drawing. The Dobell Prize for Drawing is undoubtedly the most important drawing prize in Australia with $20,000 in prize money.

Aida Tomescu explores the graphic possibilities of mark making in this remarkable diptych, revealing her interest in calligraphic/word forms, partly inspired by New Zealand painter Colin McCahon (1919-1987). Tomescu's drawings are characteristically gestural and layered, and often include collage, the whole composed of successive, evolving strata. In Negru III and Negru IV (A candle in a dark room), the drawings were developed over a ground of deeply black, etched lines. This work is from a series of drawings made in 2002 on the theme of velvety blackness - 'Negru' is Romanian for 'black' - which is achieved through the sharp contrast of black and white pastel. The series also stems from earlier work including the 'Negra' series of lithographs (1999).

Aida Tomescu was born in 1955 in Bucharest, Romania, where she studied at the Institute of Fine Arts from 1973-77. She arrived in Australia in 1980 and graduated from the City Art Institute, Sydney in 1983. She currently lives and works in Sydney.

Tomescu has exhibited her work since 1978 and has been included in a number of prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, including the Wynne, Sulman and Dobell prizes. She won the Wynne Prize in 2001 with Platra.

Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, as well as major regional and corporate collections, the National Museum, Bucharest (Romania) and British Museum (UK). Aida Tomescu is represented by Martin Browne Fine Art in Sydney and Niagara Galleries in Melbourne.

 
See the full news release on the 2003 Dobell Prize for Drawing and the First Ten Years Exhibition (1993-2003).