Aurel Popp was a Romanian painter, sculptor and graphic artist born in Căuaș, Satu Mare in 1879. He belonged to the second generation of the Painting School from Baia Mare.

     In 1889 Popp enrolled at the Higher School of Drawing and Calligraphy in Budapest. In his fourth year he earned a scholarship which sent him to Italy. In 1904 he visited Rome, Siena, Perugia, Assisi and Orvieto. After graduating, to prepare as a drawing teacher, he returned to Satu Mare where he spent his holidays drawing and painting. That year he also attended courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.

      Starting in 1906 he worked as a drawing teacher at the Royal Hungarian High School in Satu Mare until 1914. During this time he organizes in a fine arts course for talented children in Satu Mare between 1908−1909.

     From 1911−1913 he received a scholarship from the Ministry of Cults in Paris, where he travels to Paris and enrolled at Academy Julian to study painting, and where he won the first prize for painting and drawing several times. He also traveled to Meissen to study ceramics, and to London and Berlin, as well as trips to Madrid, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam and London.

     In 1919 he was elected president of the National Drawing Teachers' Union, and in 1921 he contributed to the execution of a large exhibition of fine arts at Collegium Artificum Transilvanicorum, organized in Cluj, with the participation of over 80 artists and where Aurel Popp exhibited 32 works. From 1933−1934 he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Timișoara.

     In 1958 He was awarded by the state the title of Emeritus Artist. In 1969 the Satu Mare Art Museum opened a wing with the permanent exhibition that contains many of the artist works. In the 1970s his studio in Satu Mare was turned into the "Aurel Popp Memorial Studio" located on Strada Aurel Popp, and in 1999 the Art High School from Satu Mare received the name of "Aurel Popp Art High School."