Tudor Cataraga Explained

Tudor Cataraga
Birth Date:4 August 1956
Birth Place:Seliște, Nisporeni, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Death Place:Moldova
Nationality:Moldovan
Education:Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts
Occupation:Sculptor
Awards:Order of the Star of Romania

Tudor Cataraga (born 4 August 1956 in Seliște – 27 December 2010) was a sculptor from the Republic of Moldova.[1]

Biography

From 1981 to 1984, Cataraga was a student in the sculpture department at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. As a graduate student at the same Institution (1989), he worked with Professor Sergey Kubasov. He became a member of the Union of Artists of Moldova in 1993 and of the International Association of Arts (IAA-UNESCO) in 1997. In 2000, he was named chair of the Sculpture Department of the Union of Artists of Moldova. In 2010, Cataraga and his wife were killed in a car accident.[2]

Awards

About the artist

"...As a starting point for the understanding of the artist's repertory of shapes, I would suggest two monuments: Monument to Ion Dumeniuc, The Guarding Angel (stone, 1995, Central Orthodox Cemetery, Chișinău) and Mihai Eminescu (bronze, 1996, square of the "Mihai Eminescu" National Theatre), both of them representing visual arguments of a precise spiritual and historical identity.

The first monument is characteristic for the religious, spiritual aspect, always present in the sculptor's work. We can place the Guarding Angel project, first executed in baked clay and in a smaller form in 1990, into a larger family of works: Prayer (metal, 1991) and Sound of Sadness (baked clay, 1992). The "simplicity as a resolved complexity" Brancusi is an important key for the understanding of these works.

...for the monument to Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Cataraga selects only abstract principles, imagining a "cosmic" portrait of the national genius. Far more modern in visual expression, the sculptor is now free to play with three-dimensional elements and he conceives a rhythmical network that concentrates in the poet's figure /symbolic nucleus, without stirring the space, but comprimating. This second direction of his research, his playing with neo-expressionist forms can be seen in a series of his recent experimental works: The Woman-Crossbow (bronze, wood, 1994), The Man-Bird (bronze, granite, 1994), Motherhood (bronze, granite, 1998).Tenacious in his research leading him from deductive to inductive thinking, without any disruption from his way, the sculptor's interest is gradually sliding to architectural constructions, and constructivism. The ever more pregnant abstract trend, the play with geometrical modules epitomise his fascination with the assemblage and with the rich relation "entity-detail": Genesis (wood, metal, 2000), Masterpiece (wood, metal, 2000). Tudor Cataraga, in his full artistic maturity, has the energy and the firm gesture of an inquisitive and attentive sculptor".[4]

Monumental Works

Sculpture Camps

Personal exhibitions

Collective exhibitions

Public collections

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Virtual Gallery of the Contemporary Art from the Republic of Moldova . arta.neonet.md. July 14, 2017.
  2. Web site: Sculptor Tudor Cataraga and his wife killed in road accident – Moldova Azi . Azi.md . December 28, 2010 . July 14, 2017 . March 3, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233755/http://www.azi.md/en/story/15604 . dead .
  3. Web site: Președintele Romaniei. Decretul 567 din 1 decembrie 2000 (Decretul 567/2000) . legestart.ro . Romanian . https://web.archive.org/web/20111007062653/http://www.legestart.ro/Decret-nr-567-din-2000-(MzczOTI-).htm . October 7, 2011 . July 14, 2017.
  4. Web site: Trecerea în eternitate a sculptorului Tudor Cataraga – UAP – Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici din Moldova. arta.md. July 14, 2017.

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