Centre for Romanian Studies

Mircea Micovitch 2009 Retrospective exhibition - Dreux, France,

Romanian-born French man, Mircea Milcovitch is a sculptor, painter and engraver whose profile in the French artistic landscape gained not only national but international recognition. His latest retrospective at the Hôtel Montulé, Dreux is open to 30th November 2009.

Here the visitor could see for the first time the most representative oeuvre of the artist’s life, unveiling the creative principle which links organically the different stages of artistic development – the very mystery of the spirit ensconced in stone. The exhibits evoke in the same breath modernity and tradition by using sober shapes and often symmetrical forms, in the specific alphabet typical of the artist – a language which he developed gradually to become his “hermetic objects”  sometimes suggestive of anthropomorphic origins. Yet each sculpture expresses its own personality, observing a basic rule – the conservation of the purest form, pushed to the limit of the possible, polished to perfection to do justice to the noble stone in which it is carved – the Carrara marble.

A series of sketches and drawings complement the ensemble as if to unveil the process of this gestation and of the message it conveys. That is to allude to the force which gives an impulse to the inner tension which makes the volume and shape of each object so powerful. This enable one to discern more easily the spirit proper to each sculpture, without the need to allude to any figurative reference.

From the purity of these primeval forms to the stylised beauty of the latest series of sculptures called “Ancient Memory” this entire oeuvre devoid of any vagaries or hesitations represents a natural extension of what one considers to be the opus of the best and greatest exploits of Modern Art.

Mircea Milcovitch Retrospective, France 2009

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

Historical Roots: Mircea Milcovitch was born in 1941 in  Bessarabia, a historical province of Eastern Europe   which for 600 years was part of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in Eastern Romania. Mircea was named after Prince Mircea the Old, (1355-1418) ruler of Wallachia  and a national hero, who defeated Sultan Bajazit at the battle of Rovine in 1394 and again in the last Crusade battle of Nicopolis in 1397. Indeed the land of Bessarabia recalls the Romanian princely dynasty of  Bassaraba, a family stemming from Mircea the Old’s father Prince Radu I Bassaraba. Southern Bessarabia where Mircea Milcovitch was born had strong connections with Prince Mircea the Old who erected a defensive system against the Ottomans  to control the mouth of the Danube:  a number of impressive medieval fortresses such as Bender (now in Transdnyestr), Chilia  and Cetatea Alba  (now in Ukraine) which still survive to this day as a witness to the Romanian presence in these lands.

Family Exile: In the wake of the occupation of Bassarabia (Eastern Romania) by the Soviet armies, the Milcovitch family moved to Bucharest. After WWII Stalin amputated Bessarabia of its Southern provinces, where Milcovitch was born, a land which remains to this day part of Ukraine.

Formative Years: Mircea Milcovitch studied Architecture and Fine Arts in Bucharest. These marked his formative years as an artist painter.

Second uprooting: At the age of 27, on the occasion of  an art  exhibition in France, Mircea Micovitch opted out of the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu and chose France as his adoptive country.