| Sabin Bălașa | |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1932 |
| Birth Place: | Dobriceni, Olt County, Kingdom of Romania |
| Death Place: | Bucharest, Romania |
| Resting Place: | Eternitatea Cemetery, Iași |
| Nationality: | Romanian |
| Education: | Frații Buzești High School |
| Occupation: | Painter |
| Awards: | National Order of Merit (Romania) |
Sabin Bălașa (in Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan pronounced as /saˈbin bəˈlaʃa/; June 17, 1932[1] – April 1, 2008) was a contemporary Romanian painter. His works were described by himself as belonging to cosmic Romanticism.
Bălașa was born in Dobriceni, Olt County. After completing his secondary education at Frații Buzești High School in Craiova in 1950, he attended the Nicolae Grigorescu Fine Arts Institute in Bucharest, graduating in 1955. He continued his studies at Siena and Perugia, in Italy.
In 1973 and 1976 the Bucharest Mayor's office ordered and paid him to paint the portraits of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. In the late 1980s, Bălașa was accused of promoting Ceaușescu's cult of personality.
In December 2000 he was awarded by President Emil Constantinescu the National Order of Merit, Commander rank.
In June 2005, Bălașa sued the French newspaper Le Monde for defamation after the paper reproduced a propaganda painting by another painter, claiming it was one of his.[2] Le Monde subsequently acknowledged the error.[3]
He died in 2008 from lung cancer at Sfânta Maria Hospital in Bucharest[4] and was buried at Eternitatea Cemetery in Iași.
Among Bălașa's most notable works are several large-scale fresco paintings. These include 19 murals, covering approximately, which decorate the interior of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași:
Bălașa used the image of Mihai Eminescu depicted in the nearby statue to paint the fresco in the university lobby, identifying the poet with the hero of Luceafărul.
Bălașa was the author and director of 12 animated painting movies:[5]
Rome 1978; Rome 1980; Stockholm 1982; National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest 1982; Kerkera Greece 1985; Moscow, Tbilisi and other capital cities of the ex-USSR 1988; Bucharest, 1992; Israel 1994; Bucharest World Trade Center 2000; Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași 2002; Bucharest 2005.