Top <http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/20/europe/EU-GEN-Romania-Obit-Maitec .php> Romanian sculptor dies in Paris
The Associated Press Tuesday, March 20, 2007 BUCHAREST, Romania: Ovidiu Maitec, one of Romania's top contemporary sculptors who was considered the successor to legendary sculptor Constantin Brancusi, has died. He was 81. Maitec died on Sunday in a hospital in Paris, where he was being treated for an unspecified illness, the Romanian Academy said in a statement. The sculptor was one of a few Romanian artists to be able to travel abroad during the communist era and he exhibited in the Venice Biennale contemporary art shows several times, the International Festival of Edinburgh and in Bilbao, Spain. After communism ended in 1989, Maitec - considered one of the most original contemporary sculptors - exhibited in the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. His works in metal and wood are displayed in the Tate gallery in London, in Paris, Sydney, Florida, and the German cities of Cologne and Mannheim, said Beatrice Weber, a family friend. His sculptures included series of gates, wings, birds and columns. Late Romanian-born writer and religious historian Mircea Eliade described him as "the real successor to Brancusi," Romania's best-known artist, Weber said in a statement. Born in the western city of Arad in 1925, Maitec studied sculpture at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest from 1945 to 1950. In the same year, he became one of the founders of the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania and lectured at the institute until 1956. His debut as a sculptor came in 1953, when he exhibited sculptures inspired by communist art of the time, Socialist Realism. He was one of a group of Romanian intellectuals who took part in a movement centered around transcendental meditation which led to him being expelled from the Communist Party. "He was an 'official' artist but he was also very talented," said Petru Romosan, an art critic. He will be buried in Bucharest on Friday. He is survived by his painter wife Sultana Maitec a son, Stefan and a grandson. Copyright C 2007 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com <http://www.iht.com/> ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
