MOLDPRES COMMENTARY/ Inauguration of first museum of Moldovan painter in Ukraine: ''A country where museums are opened in war time is undefeatable''

Chisinau, 26 May /MOLDPRES/ - The first museum and gallery dedicated to painter, Merited Artist of Ukraine Mihai Grecu, born in the Faraoani village, community Petripavlivka, Bolgrad district, has been opened in the Semisotka settlement from Ukraine, which is in fact a village museum in open air, with only two residents of Moldovan origin.     

The event fit into the agenda of the regional conference, Bessarabian Technological Hub – Engine of Digital Transformation before the Accession to EU of the border administrative areas from south-east of Moldova and Odessa region, Ukraine, held on 23-24 May 2024.   

The opening of the museum of painter Mihai Grecu represents a record registered at the national Council of records from Ukraine on the territory of the Eco-tourist Cluster Frumusica Nova from the Borodino community, Bolgrad district, after the Flag of Moldova, registered as the biggest one in the neighbour country, was hoisted also there.    

A house from the village, where epoch objects and copies of the fine artist’s paintings were exhibited, was chosen for placing the museum.  

„Sixteen artists from Ukraine painted copes of works by Mihai Grecu, the originals of which from the Soviet age are in the Tretyakov Gallery from Moscow, which, unfortunately, are not accessible,’’ the organizer of the event, patron Alexandr Palariev said at the ceremony on the inauguration of the museum’s founder.   

Attending the event, the manager of the Museum of History of Chisinau City,  Valeria Suruceanu, said that, for the time being, there was no museum dedicated to Mihai Grecu in Moldova and all works signed by the painter are preserved by his daughters. ‘’You have managed to do a great thing, for which you deserve every respect. A country where museums are open in war time is undefeatable,’’ Valeria Suruceanu stressed.  

Symbolical was also the fact that the ribbons of the museum were not cut, as they were in the colours of the Flags of Ukraine and Moldova, but were raised above the gate, while people were entering. This was a quite moving thing, thus setting the beginning of a new tradition.

Delegations from the villages of Copceac and Volintiri from the Stefan Voda district took part in the museum’s inauguration. At the same time, the history museum from Copceac came up also with a donation of works made by local artisans. ‘’It is about a cultural cooperation at the level of the Moldovan-Ukrainian relations, before the economic and environmental fields, which will guide us on a common road to the European Union and this is very good,’’ Alexandr Palariev noted.     

Mihai Grecu (born on 22 November 1916, Faraoani – died on 9 April 1998, Chisinau, Moldova) was a Romanian painter from Bessarabia, who founded the Bessarabian modernism in fine arts and contributed to the creation of the National Painting School (along with Mihai Petric and Valentina Rusu-Ciobanu). He was regarded as an innovator and ‘’a complex and quite gifted personality,’’ who ‘’revolutionized the fine arts from Moldova, as well as from the former Soviet area,’’ remaining, at the same time, on the fertile soil of the Romanian tradition. Regarded as a passionate colorist, seeker of original harmonies, the painting of Mihai Grecu is of interest also through technological innovations (collage, fluorescent colouring matters, ‘’metal’’ effects)        

Some of his paintings are present in the golden collection of the Moldovan painting. He is the author of a large number of paintings displayed in important museums of the former Soviet Union, including the Tretyakov Gallery.

The painter managed to preserve the foundations of the Romanian art in the Moldovan works.

Educated in the Romanian cultural space, at the Academy of Fine Arts from Bucharest, Mihai Grecu remained faithful to the Romanian tradition of painting. He was a model for more generations of painters, his workshop being school for more Bessarabian artists, such as Andrei Sarbu, Andrei Mudrea, Dumitru Peicev, Iurie Platon and others.     

Correspondent: Lilia Grubii, Ukraine