Vida Geza (Baia Mare, 1913 - Baia Mare, 1980)

Romanian sculptor. Son of a miner, he was born in a region of high artistic potential, reverbarating with the traditions of the Romanian folk art and with the "Baia Mare School of Painting" creations. He started doing sculpture by himself. In 1936, urged by his political beliefs, he volunteered for Spain, to fight there in the Revolution behalf. On his way home, he would roam through museums in Europe. His debut was with a group exhibition opened in Baia Mare in 1937. From 1942 to 1944 he would devote his time to systematically study sculpture in Budapest. Since 1953 his participation in local exhibitions or in exhibitions organized abroad became quite frequent. In 1958 he was present at the Venice Biennial and at the Socialist Countries' Art Exhibition in Moscow. He was awarded several prizes and titles: the State Prize in 1953; the people's artist title in 1964; the State Committee for Culture and Art Prize in 1971. He sculpted the Monuments at Carei and Moisei and the "Sage Sitting" in Baia Mare. His conception of the Moisei Monument is an epitome of the Romanian spirituality, so far intensified as to reveal the proneness to order, to inner and cosmic order, to an undeniably full of humanity place which the Dacian sanctuaries and Brancusi's evoking spaces represent. The 12 Pillars, arranged in a circle, stand for the Maramures inhabitants or for local mythological creatures. Centripetal forces subtly get together the spiritual life data, whereas centrifugal forces make the precincts where the Maramures heroes are glorified look infinite. Among his compositions the "Sage Sitting" most obviously shows his great perspicacity in noticing facts and events, grasping their meaning and philosophically transfiguring them. The sculptor 's inspiration is given by a moment of full gravity and solemnity in the existence of a village in an old and fully accomplished civilisation. Sitting down on wooden benches, the sage people would sit and concentrate their deliberations in the heart of the community life. Their brooding session, even though dedicated to a concrete situation the community should cope with, sips all their ancestors' knowledge. It is the high time when the Sage, palpable as human beings as they are, in the very heart of the village, seem to seclude from the running time and enter an immemorial time, the time of deep thinking. With their faces marked with wrinkles, and their gestures calmed down and countenance showing no startle, they nevertheless live an intense inner life and deep ideatic and sentimental experiences. They touch ordinary people with their power of deep reasoning, presenting the wise side of the world, the active, full of wisdom side. Folk myths and magical representations are consistently studied and highlighted by the sculptor. Contrary to what one might expect, myth and magic take the viewers not in the mysterious ancient times but in the present day magnificence, putting it into bold relief and succeeding to identify in its symbols meanings which cannot be grasped at first sight. Imagination would actually load new significances to things and events. The artist selects the essence of the species, whom he paradoxically mythicizes, in order to keep it mundane. The transpositions result in highly metaphorical creations such as Omul apelor/The man of waters; Omul noptii/The man of the night; Omul padurii/The man of the woods, and even the Moisei Monument. He imagined his composition Solomonarul after being emotionally struck by a queer appearance: a monster signifying the unpredictable brutal force, the blind action of natural elements which a "solomonar", as a symbol of the man's rational existence, rides on. Woods, waters and mountains, the places where mythical fauna hides in, are as well known to the sculptor as are the underground spaces, where he stepped down to capture the unique moments of the miners work (see Sir de Mineri calatorind cu vagonetul/Miners on board of a trolley or spirits populating the same imaginative world (Valva minei; Priculiciul minei/The Spook of the Mine). Beyond his obssesion with the phantastic world, he takes pains to make all that is human related conforms to the rules which personifies a universe. Because his vision is always the result of a keen observation of life sequences, he realised such works as Buciumasul/The "Bucium" Blower; Odihna/At rest; Dans din Oas/The Oas Dance or Horitoarea si Carnavalul/The "Hora" singer and the Carnival. His intuition in spotting one log and abandoning the other for his artistic finality goes far beyond the mere skilfulness in exploiting log twistings, nervures and stratifications up to stirring the sensitiveness of the wood piece, up to a singular communion with that matter. Vigorous and ample carvings transform the piece of wood into the desired volumes, with a specific distinction. His sculptures will not challenge the environment by trying to fit there. They have an intrinsic loftiness and a volume arrangement which best suits the space they occupy.

Moisei Monument

Last update: 2004, October 25
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