Tudor Cataraga

Tudor Cataraga

Tudor Cataraga, Knight of the National Order of the Star of Romania, in the rank of Commander
Photograph taken by Mihai Potârniche
Born (1956-08-04)August 4, 1956
Selişte, Nisporeni, Republic of Moldova
Died December 27, 2010(2010-12-27) (aged 54)
Moldova
Cause of death car accident[1]
Residence Chişinău
Nationality Moldovan
Alma mater Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts
Occupation sculptor
Religion Orthodox Church
Awards Order of the Star of Romania

Tudor Cataraga (born August 4, 1956 in Selişte-December 27, 2010) was a sculptor from the Republic of Moldova.[2]

Awards

About artist

The Man Bird (bronze-granite 1994)
The Man Bird (bronze-granite 1994)

"...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, Chisinau) 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).

Underwater object (metal 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".

Oana Tanase - Art critic, Bucharest

Monumental Works


Sculpture Camps

Personal exhibitions

Collective exhibitions

Public collections

Private collections

References

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