Sketches of paintings and book illustrations from the collections of the family of plastic artist Igor Vieru were exhibited for the first time at the National Library of the Republic of Moldova. The exhibition was mounted as part of a roundtable meeting centering on the teaching activity and works of master Igor Vieru, IPN reports.
National Library director general Elena Pintilei said that the meeting brought together both plastic artists and art critics who treated Igor Vieru’s works from different perspectives, especially as a painter, book illustrator, and teacher. Members of the plastic artist’s family spoke about the challenges experienced by master Igor Vieru in time. For the National Library, artistically 2023 was the “Year of Igor Vieru”. The roundtable meeting ends the series of events organized in Moldova to enable to view and admire Igor Vieru’s works.
Literary historian and writer Vasile Malanetski said that although the “Year of Igor Vieru” was not decreed officially, it was actually celebrated through the series of homage events staged this year at state and cultural institutions. For a decade, he has been monitoring and collecting everything that has been written about Igor Vieru and he was surprised to see that some inaccurate, unverified data about Igor Vieru are taken by sources that must be first-hand, absolutely credible sources and what is worse, this information is distributed by other, second-rate sources without verifying it. The inaccuracies must be eradicated so that they do not multiply like weeds.
Art critic Leonora Sydnik said that Igor Vieru’s art is a true, multivalent, profound phenomenon. He is that plastic artist who knew best the history of the nation, traditions and customs. Igor Vieru remains that phenomenon that deserves to be studied yet. Igor Vieru is a portraitist of the peasant, author of female portraits in which the woman is identified with the face of a virgin. Even if the process of work is not reflected in the works, the working person is present in almost all Vieru’s works.
Academician and painter Alexei Kolybniak said that Igor Vieru left an enormous legacy in the field of book graphics. All the stories illustrated by Igor Vieru are fantastic and have access to the perception of the child. The child is inspired by these images. At the same time, Igor Vieru was not only a true master of painting and what later became book graphics, but also a very skillful teacher. Igor Vieru was justly appreciated during his teaching activity and later. The teaching staff of the current Lyceum “Igor Vieru” proposed naming the institution “Igor Vieru” immediately after the artist died.
The roundtable meeting entitled “A rhapsode of the land – Igor Vieru – 100 years of his birth”, which was held in the reading room of the Arts and Maps Collection of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, was also attended by a group of young people from the Academic High School of Fine Arts “Igor Vieru”.
