Mihai Olos (born 26 February 1940 in Ariniș, Romania – died 22 February 2015 in Amoltern, Endigen, Germany) was a Romanian conceptual artist, poet, and essayist, who sought to combine local folk culture with modern art trends. Initially a painter, he gravitated towards experimental forms and materials, intending to follow in the footsteps of Constantin Brâncuși. Olos developed a universal city concept, "Olospolis," using a modular design inspired by traditional Maramureș wooden architecture. While first known in Romania for his constructivist paintings and happenings, his international recognition solidified in 1977 after artist Joseph Beuys remarked he was a "genuine artist." Consequently, Beuys included Olos's drawing of his module in his "Das Kapital" exhibit at the 1980 Venice Biennial. Realizing his ideas resonated more abroad, Olos eventually moved to Germany after 1989. Posthumous exhibitions, particularly at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest and major international art fairs, have cemented his importance as an international artist.
Early life Childhood Mihai Olos's family roots are connected to the picturesque county Maramureș from north-western Romania. The ethnographic zone of his birthplace Ariniș (its older name being "Ardihat") is that of the sub-Codru (sub-forest) zone, connected with the culture of wood. If geographically the village is situated close to the central point of Europe, historically it is on the borders of the ancient Dacia, on the limes (limits or borders) of the Roman colonization, with some Celtic remains still visible in some circular stone crosses still extant also in the churchyard of the artist's birthplace. The recent archaeological discoveries have brought up remains of an important neolithic culture as well. The inhabitants are proud of their noble origins certified in the Maramureș "Diplomas", of their contribution to the development of nation building. Their opposition to denationalization during the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the Vienna Diktat, and, with less success, during the years of the totalitarian regime have to be remembered as well. They are also proud for having contributed to the formation of the national language, with the oldest codex of written language found in a monastery from the region.
Mihai, the second son of a Romanian family, was baptized after his father known as "Mihaiu Florii Vilii" in village because there was another unrelated family also called Olos. The artist was proud of his father's maternal family being related to George Pop de Băsești, a politician and president of the Transylvanian National Party (1905–1919). Still, while elaborating his future concept of universal city, he liked to connect his family name to the word's meaning in ancient Greek, i.e. "universal" or "total".
His mother Ana, coming from the Borșa family (or clan) of noble origin, was born in Poiana Codrului, in the full of mysteries zone of wood culture. Among the inhabitants of Poiana Codrului there were also German settlers, employed in the glass factory. His mother's blue eyes and fair hair might suggest also a Germanic ancestry.
Mihai's childhood had started as happily in a still unaltered natural and cultural environment with archaic roots as concerns the organization of the homestead, interior decoration of the home, the authenticity of the household object, customs and faith.
Since his father was most of the time away selling cattle at fairs, the baby boy spent his time with his mother and in the company of the village women. He saw them at work and witnessed their gatherings where sewing, spinning or other household activities were accompanied by singing, the reciting of folk poetry, the telling of tales. The secret practice of charms and witchcraft was still alive those days. The boy with an excellent memory and beautiful voice learned everything he could from the women and in no time became their favorite, imbued with all their knowledge. From his three years older brother and the village boys he learned their games and the making of hair balls, wooden toys, musical instruments from reed or corn stalks, of tree bark or young offspring, wooden skates or even sleighs. His father's being a tradesman influenced him in making rosewater and sell it to the girls in the village. Later on he wrote the girls' letters to their lovers in the army or composed little poems, drew images and texts for their wall-cloths for a modest return. Taking the cattle to the pasture, participating in the farm work from sowing to harvest and the preparation for the next crop, he was also involved in the rural rites around the year. From time to time, when the cattle fair happened to be in their village at crossroads, he was a witness to men's stories, those of the tradesmen coming also from other counties. He learned from them communication skills and the love of conviviality and this whetted his appetite to explore the world.
His early childhood, as he recalled it in his stories, appeared less marked by the war or the experiences of the Transylvanians who had to leave their homes during the Second Vienna Award. Living in his child's closed universe, at that time he was unaware of what was happening in the rest of the world. His father hadn't been conscripted to go to war. No one from the family died on the battle fields. The only tragic event he remembered was that one of his uncles coming home from the war died the day after his arrival and his daughter went after him.
The changes in the family's fate came after the war when, according to the Percentages agreement the country fell under the Soviet influence. The falsified elections of 1946, the forced abdication of the king at the end of 1947 and the establishment of a communist regime affected the child through their consequences. He remembered his father's loss of all the money he had earned selling cattle due to the 1947 currency reform. With the family's shaken material status, the two sons had to become their father's helpers in the everyday chores, whether working in the field or taking care of animals. Going to school and joining the community of the other children from the village came as a compensation. Starting school attendance at six, due to his interest in learning while seeing his elder brother' progress, Mihai became a dedicated pupil, determined to learn and discover all the secrets hidden in the world of books. Even if this period changed his orientation from the traditional multifaceted visual and oral culture towards what McLuhan call "the Gutenberg Galaxy", the archaic archetypal elements of folk culture and mentality would company alter on the artist in his encounters with the western urban culture.
Secondary school in the provincial town of Baia Mare (1953–1956) A radical change in Mihai's life happened on 11 September 1950, when his mother died in childbirth, a death he never forgot. Their father's remarriage came as another shock to the boys and Mihai's elder brother, Vasile, was the first one to run away from home, followed by Mihai in 1953. Without any material support from home, the boys had no right to receive a scholarship because of their father's refusal to join the collective farm in the village. So they had to take their lives in their own hands. While in Baia Mare, Olos attended the Gheorghe Șincai High School. He began to teach private lessons and during the school holidays worked as a courier at the local newspaper. Learning the "ABC of journalism", he was sent to the countryside as a cub reporter, meeting various categories of people. This experience served him later on, when writing for the press and giving a theoretical grounding to his theories about art and the concept of the Universal City.
Substitute teacher in Oaș (1956–1959) After graduating high-school and with his experience in private tutoring, Mihai applied for a teaching job. The school was in a remote village in Oaș, Pășunea Mare. The zone had a specific ethnographic character, with extremely proud people who still practiced the vendetta. The women wore vividly colored skirts and scarves. The men used to wear on the top of their head a little straw hat embellished with beads. They were renowned woodcutters but there was no land good to farm. Poor eaters but great drinkers they would not accept a refusal when they offered a drink to their guests. Mihai got lodging for free in the house of violinist ("ceteraș", from the name of the violin called "cetera") and as a young school master he often accompanied the violinist to wedding feasts and round dances, playing the contra. The dances were full of rhythm, the singing with hollers, shriek, piercing interventions. Later on he will practice this kind of shriek singing – hollering – many times in his life, making himself remarked. For the young man who was not even seventeen when he arrived there, it was a capital experience from many points of view. With the permanent presence of death as he could have been killed if interfering in their feuds, this period could be compared to an initiation rite. As these remote villages from Oaș had also served as refuge for many fine intellectuals belonging to the former regime, these political refugees were the first to make known to him the names of the great Romanian writers never mentioned in school or those of important European or American authors and artists.
The gains of the years spent in different places from were counterbalanced by the harsh conditions of life and the poverty of the villagers. The improper living conditions and the poor diet affected the feeble young man's health. The occasion to leave was offered by the newly founded teachers training colleges all over the country and he chose to go.
Student in the cultural capital of Transylvania (1959–1963) Advised by those he had met and befriended in Oaș, he chose to go to Cluj, the cultural capital of Transylvania, instead of going to a closer town, such as Baia Mare. The years spent in Cluj, first as a student in the teacher training college then in painting section of the newly founded pedagogical institute, were decisive for his career. More important than the educational institutions he had attended, it was the cultural milieu in Cluj. The city had a national theater, a philharmonic, a long academic tradition, with various higher educational institutions, humanities, arts, music, a medical school, a polytechnic, a botanical garden and a university library. There were also the great professors and artists populating the town and these institutions, though some of the personalities were still prosecuted. Among these were the great poet and philosopher Lucian Blaga who had been given a job at the university library and, the more visible for his patriarchal appearance, prose writer Ion Agârbiceanu. The city was accommodating thousands of students coming from different parts of the country, some of them, like himself, born in peasant families and determined to become intellectuals according to the traditional Transylvanian respect for learning.
As much as he would have wished to become a student at the "Ion Andreescu" art academy, it had been impossible for him to survive without any material support during the six years of study required there. Nevertheless, he was lucky to have at the pedagogical institute a good professor of art, Coriolan Munteanu, renowned painter of churches, who recognized his students' personality and did not bridle their independent spirit with academic rules.