Florin Mitroi (1938-2002) was a Romanian contemporary expressionist artist whose striking portraits and depictions of the human body have been compared to Picasso’s engravings of mythological characters. Mitroi was an enigmatic figure, whose art, like that of fellow Romanian painter Ion Ţuculescu, was discovered only after the artist’s passing. Mitroi taught fine arts for the entirety of his career at the National University of Art in Bucharest, yet his students report that when they visited his atelier, all his own works were always covered and hidden from view. Once his paintings and drawings were finally revealed and circulated among the public, they attested to a masterful development of a unique style and artistic identity. His art captures human existence as simultaneously melancholy, wretched, banal, and beautiful. Working with drawings, paintings, and cut-outs on zinc-coated iron plates, Mitroi created landscapes and erotic drawings, but is best known for his portraits of angular figures frequently menaced by sharp objects or placed in extreme positions. Since his death, his work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; the Contemporary Art Gallery of the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu; Johnen Galerie, Berlin; La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse; Espace Niemeyer, Paris; MARe – Muzeul de Artă Recentă, Bucharest; de Warande, Turnhout; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum Dhont-Dhaenens; Mogoşoaia Palace, Bucharest; the Museum of Art, Timişoara; The Museum of Art, Cluj; Catacomba Gallery, Bucharest; and others.

Among the stylised portraits that comprise most of Mitroi’s 30-year output is the painting 31 XII 1988, which features a male figure in an unbounded landscape who is shown fighting a fantastical creature. This work of Mitroi’s evokes something of a Byzantine icon in its depiction of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon.