The compartment "Graphic Arts" of the Gallery comprises a selection from the works of ten Plastic Artists from the Republic of Moldova that devoted themselves both to book and easel graphics.
The art of graphics (especially that of book graphics) is known on the territory of the actual Republic of Moldova for a period of many centuries. The history of this art begins still from the old medieval manuscripts, goes on through the art of the first wood cuts printed from the XVII-XVIII centuries in order to know a fundamental diversification along the period of the XX century.
The graphic artists whose works are presented in the gallery belong to many different generations and are remarked by heterogenic artistic options. Thus, the graphic artists of the older generation who began to create before the World War II or immediately after the war and who began their activity under very hard conditions of the ideologic pressure from the first post-war decade although "paid contribution" to the art employed inspired by "industrial" or "historical-revolutionary" subjects managed, however, by means of their skill and talent to overpass "the wooden language" of the art of that period and to create authentic spiritual values. Leonid Beleaev's illustrations to the books dedicated to Pushkin's lyrics, Leonid Grigorashenco's water-colours inspired by the medieval history, the portraits of contemporaries performed by Stepan Tuhari, considerably enriched the national patrimony.
Gheorghe Vrabie and Isai Carmu, graphic artists of the intermediary generation began their creative activity in the 60-es of the XX century. They have enlarged considerably the graphic language of the books, managed to impose unchallenged "priority" of the "esthetic value" in the graphic art, which was often eclipsed by conjuncture and the "spirit" of the necessities at the moment. Leonid Nikitin is a representative of the same generation of graphic artists, a graduate of the Polygraphic Institute "Ivan Fiodorov" from Lvov.
The artistic biography of the plastic artist Mihai Brunea is very devious: after his studies at the Physics Faculty of the State University from Chisinau, at the end of the 70-es he prefers to dedicate himself to graphics bringing the spirit of observation of a scientist as well as irony, the burlesque and the "ludic" spirit of his own individuality.
The art of Vladimir Melnic - the graduate of Polygraphic Institute "Ivan Fiodorov" from Lvov is a "chamber" art remarked by lyrism and "transcendence" of the initial motif approached.
The plastic metaphor, the interest accorded to the texture of the sheet, the new possibilities for the preparation of paper with the aim of enlarging the possibilities of the graphic art, these are only some coordinates round which the creational activity of Simion Zamsa and Elena Karacentv gravitates, a family, both of whom graduated from the Academy of Plastic Arts from Saint Petersburg.
It is evident that the selection of graphical sheet offered by the Gallery can't include all the existing tendencies at the actual stage in the graphics of the Republic of Moldova. The development of the polygraphic techniques, of the photographic methods, of the design in the last two decades have remodelled substantially the traditional possibilities of this old genre of art. Actually, major importance is accorded to the raw material on which the graphical work is inculated (printed): paper. The workshops dedicated to the preparation of diverse types of paper for the necessities of the original easel graphics or for book graphics have already become a tradition among the artistic circles from Chisinau.
Leonid Beleaev
