Tudor Cataraga

Tudor Cataraga (4 August 1956 – 27 December 2010) was a sculptor from the Republic of Moldova.

Biography From 1981 to 1984, Cataraga was a student in the sculpture department at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. As a graduate student at the same Institution (1989), he worked with Professor Sergey Kubasov. His professional affiliations include membership in the Union of Artists of Moldova, which he joined in 1993. Subsequently, in 1997, he became a member of the International Association of Art (IAA/AIAP), an organization functioning in official partnership with UNESCO. In 2000, he was named chair of the Sculpture Department of the Union of Artists of Moldova. In 2010, Cataraga and his wife were killed in a car accident.

Awards 2000 – Medal "Mihai Eminescu", awarded by the President of Romania 2001 – Order of the Star of Romania, Commander rank Awarded the National prize of the Culture ministry

About the artist

"...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, Chișinău) 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).

Monumental Works 1990 - Archeology, bronze and stone 1990 - Manole the Builder, chamotte 1994 - Guarding Angel, funeral monument dedicated to Ion Dumeniuc, stone, Chișinău, Moldova 1994 - Woman-Crossbow, bronze and wood 1995 - Levitation, bronze and wood 1995 - Human bird, bronze 1996 - Mihai Eminescu, bronze-granite, Chișinău, Moldova 2000 - Medieval Throne, sandstone, Ungheni, Moldova 2001 - Beginning and End, granite, Changchun World Sculpture Park, Changchun, Jilin province, China 2002 - Meeting in space, wood-stone-metal, Ungheni, Moldova 2002 - Rigid fluidity, funeral monument dedicated to Andrei Sârbu, Chișinău, Moldova 2004 - Stephen III of Moldavia, stone, Nisporeni, Moldova 2005 - Mihai Eminescu-bust, stone, Nisporeni, Moldova 2005 - Meşterul Manole, stone, Criuleni, Moldova 2006 - Dispersal in Time, stone, Ungheni, Moldova 2006 - Dolmen, granite, Chișinău, Moldova 2006 - Alexander I of Moldavia, bronze, Ialoveni, Moldova 2008 - Leonardo Da Vince, stone, Technical University of Moldova 2008 - Mihai Eminescu-bust, bronze, Iurceni, Moldova 2010 - Alert Flying, graved stone stele dedicated to writer and diplomat Aurel Dragoș Munteanu, Buda village, Moldova 2010 - Masa Raiului, mosaic-concrete, Sângeorz-Băi, Romania

Sculpture Camps 1992 - Galda Moment, Alba-Iulia, Romania 1993 - Nine Masters, George Apostu Art Center, Bacău, Romania 1993 - Mold-Expo, Chișinău, Moldova 1997 - First International Symposium of Bronze Sculpture, Chișinău, Moldova 1998 - Second International Symposium of Bronze Sculpture, Chișinău, Moldova 2000, 2002, 2006 - Stone Sculpture Symposium, Ungheni, Moldova 2001 - International Sculpture Symposium, Changchun, Jilin province, China 2005 - Stone Sculpture Symposium, Criuleni, Moldova 2008 - Stone Sculpture Symposium, at Chișinău Technical University, Moldova 2009 - Stone Sculpture Camp, Bran, Romania 2010 - Sculpture Camp, Sângeorz-Băi, Romania

Personal exhibitions 1998 - Gallery Latin America House, Bucharest, Romania 1999 - Vasile Pogor Memorial House, Iași, Romania 2000 - Parliament Hall, Bucharest, Romania 2003 - Center Constantin Brâncuși, Chișinău, Moldova 2005 - UNHCR, Chișinău, Moldova 2005 - Art exhibition at OSCE Mission, Chișinău, Moldova 2006 - National Museum of Art (MNAM), Chișinău, Moldova 2014 - Cu pietate, in eternitate, in memory of Tudor Cataraga, curated by Tudor Braga (art critic), at the Exhibition Center Constantin Brâncuși, Chișinău, Moldova

Collective exhibitions 1986 - Youth's Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia 1987 - Exhibition Center Saint Petersburg Manege, Russia 1988 - Contemporary History and Civilization, Saint Petersburg, Russia 1989 - Exhibition OHTA, Saint Petersburg, Russia 1989 - Leningrad and its inhabitants, Saint Petersburg Manege, Russia 1989–2001 - Moldova's Salon, Chișinău-Bacău-Bucharest 1990, 1994 - Spring Salon, Exhibition Center Constantin Brâncuși, Chișinău, Moldova 1990 - The Disciples of Art Academy of USSR Saint Petersburg, Russia 1991 - The Disciples of Art Academy of USS, Tbilisi, Georgia 1991, 2001 - Autumnala '91 Exhibition Center Constantin Brancuși, Chișinău, Moldova 1992 - Limba Noastră, Exhibition Center Constantin Brâncuși, Chișinău, Moldova 1992–1993 - Bassarabian Artists in Bucharest, Art-Expo, Bucharest, Romania 1995 - Painting Exhibition, Düsseldorf, Germany 1996 - Art Exhibition, Budapest, Hungary 1999 - Art Exhibition, Strasbourg, France 2000 - Parliament Hall Art Exhibition, Bucharest, Romania 2001–2010 December 1 – National Day of Romania, Chișinău, Moldova 2002 - Sculpture Exhibition, Constantin Brâncuși Exhibition Center, Chișinău, Moldova 2002 - Painting Exhibition, Leone, France 2003–2006 Orizont Eminescian, Constantin Brâncuși Exhibition Center, Chișinău, Moldova 2004 - Art Exhibition at National Museum, Chișinău, Moldova 2005 - Art Exhibition, Vilnius, Lithuania 2006 - Exhibition TsDH, Moscow/Krimskiy Val, Russia 2006 - Art from Republic of Moldova, Utrecht, Holland 2006 - Emergenţă Sala Rotonda, Iași, Romania 2008 - Exhibition Center Constantin Brâncuși, Chișinău, Moldova

Public collections National Art Museum of Moldova, Chișinău, Moldova Romanian Literature Museum, Chișinău, Moldova Romanian Literature Museum, Iași, Romania Moldova State University, Chișinău, Moldova Culture Center George Apostu, Bacău, Romania Artists Union of Romania, Constantin Brâncuși Exhibition Hall, Bucharest, Romania