(story to be published in tomorrow’s issue, March 13)
Plastic art lovers gathered together for a week of remembering. During this period, two shows will open, dedicated to artists that are no longer among us: Aurel Agripa and Valentin Munteanu. Tomorrow at the Bucharest Art Gallery, former colleagues will honour the memory of painter A. Agripa, in a collective display including pieces of the artist that would have been 60 on April 24. The artists worked together in 1999 at the Creation Camp at the Mogosoaia Palace. They are Letitia Oprisan, Angela Tomaselli, Horatiu Panait, Ileana Dana Marinescu, Elisabeta Ursu, Costin Neamtu, Marilena Murariu. In his lifetime, A. Agripa had personal displays at the Art and History museum in Botosani, the “Friedrich Schiller” Cultural Centre, “Orizont” Gallery, “atefan Luchian” Gallery in Bacau, “Caminul Artei” Gallery and “Cupola” Gallery in Iasi. In 1993, he was granted the Prize of the Plastic Artists Union in the Republic of Moldavia, while in 1995 he received the Painting Prize at the Municipal Salon and the Prize of the District Culture Inspectorate in Bacau. The other celebrated artist is Valentin Munteanu, who left this world when he was only 30 (in 1998). “Munteanu had wonderful imaginative possibilities, he conveyed emotions, ideas in a seducing manner. I believe his work is complete,” says his pupil, Master Marcel Chirnoaga. Munteanu displayed in Romania, Hungary, Great Britain and in 1994 he received a Certificate for Modern American Art History.