Ion Ţuculescu la Craiova

The painter Ion Țuculescu is the author of a work of great originality, created in the 40s-60s, in conditions that are among the most unfavorable for free artistic development. The Craiova Art Museum has the privilege of owning an exceptional donation from the Țuculescu family, consisting of works from all periods of creation, together with documentary material of the greatest importance for the knowledge of the artist's work. Unfortunately, today this rich batch of works is not exhibited, remaining almost forgotten in the Museum's warehouses. The permanent exhibition Ion Țuculescu, opened in 1973 by the Craiova Art Museum in a specific location intended for Donation Țuculescu, in a beautiful old house from the beginning of the century, had a tragic destiny, because after only four years of operation the building was demolished. A short period in which the author of the present volume, Magda Buce Răduț, professor of art history at the Art High School in Craiova, made the Țuculescu exhibition a privileged place for visits with students, an opportunity for initiation into modernity and the starting point of this book. The author has shown more interest in this subject, "The Ion Țuculescu Collection from Craiova", publishing a series of articles on this topic. Now he expands his concern to the level of an extensive book, in which he develops the research of Țuculescu's work, starting from documentary records that are apparently at hand, but insufficiently exploited. A few photos partially document the exhibition from the short interval when the public could directly take note of the spiritual adventure of the scholar and artist Ion Țuculescu. The catalog of this collection, drawn up according to all museographic requirements in 1974, 40 years ago, is unfortunately long out of print and only a few specialists have it in mind. The meeting with Ion Țuculescu from Craiova was almost a fatality, it could not be missing from the cultural and professional horizon of Magdea Buce Răduț, who published in 2008 the volume "Trecutul în Craiova de auxă", prefaced by Dinu C. Giurescu. Then, impressed by the architectural heritage of Craiova, she aimed to draw attention to what survived from the old city, but also to those monuments whose memory is preserved only by vintage documents and postcards, collected over the years. Magda Buce Răduț has the noble initiative to resume the research of this valuable collection, ignored by the public today, and thus relaunch the interest in the great artist that was Ion Țuculescu. The presence of Țuculescu, precarious today in the great museums of the country, the difficulties that went through the organization of the great retrospective at the National Art Museum of Romania in 1999, more recently the silence that accompanied the centenary of Țuculescu, with the exception of the exhibition at the Art Society Cultural Center in Bucharest - with the collaboration of the Craiova Art Museum, are circumstances that should give us food for thought. The volume "Ion Țuculescu in Craiova", published by Aius Publishing House, has the merit of reacting precisely to the regrettable oblivion in which the Țuculescu Donation is, still unexhibited, although the editing of a catalog by Florin Rogneanu marked the beginning of recovery. On this occasion, the author publishes biographical documents and new photos, the correspondence from the front, where the painter was as a military doctor, addressed to his wife and daughters, completing the portrait of the man Țulescu. The documents related to the completion of the donation to the Craiova Art Museum - the correspondence of Maria Țuculescu with Nicole Borteș, the then director of the Museum - complete the file of the reception of the artist in the 70s . Magda Buce Răduț reminds us in this way that there was a glorious moment when the Țuculescu Donation was permanently exhibited in Craiova and offered art lovers and all Craiova residents the opportunity to meditate on the life and creation of Ion Țuculescu. The most consistent part of the work, however, is certainly the images of the 39 oil paintings of the collection and of a significant number of the most expressive graphic works, accompanied by pertinent specialist comments, familiarizing the general public with the universe of the creation of a singular artist. The Aius publishing house thus includes, in its list of publications, a truly necessary volume for the perpetuation of Ion Țuculescu's memory. Dr. Ioana Vlasiu, art critic