Ion Irimescu - a beautiful mind

The “Ion Irimescu” Arts Museum in Falticeni, eastern Romania, is shelter for 300 sculptures, 1000 drawings, and an arts library. But above all it is home to an immortal spirit. Ion Irimescu was born in 1903. His life spans over the entire 20th century. Shortly before he celebrated the venerable age of 100, the sculptor granted us an interview in which we have tried to trace the outstanding life of a man and an artist. In a century long life he has received innumerable awards and distinctions; at their mention he gives an affable smile. He says all his sculptures are nothing but translations of thoughts, memories and imagination into solid matter: “ I’ve always walked about with a notebook in my pocket in which I would put down my impressions and my feelings about the things and the places I saw. I would make sketches of all the wonderful places I have visited in Romania and abroad. I’ve never travelled with a photo camera on me as most people do. I have tried to collect my personal impressions and to turn them into drawings, paintings or sculptures in the light of my understanding of that time. I’ve always thought of my works as very well anchored in reality, as things that last. “
Most of Ion Irimescu’s works are gathered at the museum in Falticeni, but some of them are in private collections or scattered in museums around the world. The sculptor has returned to Falticeni guided by the principle that the first love is the greatest. And Ion Irimescu’s first love is his prime youth: “ As a young man I had the first insights into nature and I was driven by the desire to put those feelings in drawings. I felt the need to make sketches of people and places. It was my first contact with life in the full meaning of the word. Then I entered the school of arts and my life took yet another turn. If until then I had sought to put on paper what I thought, after I entered the school of arts I felt the need to put on paper what I saw. Our teaching material was the human body in its full beauty. I tried to stick to reality, to search for it and not to put a make up on it. I tried to avoid representing an embellished reality as depicted by lots of artists who sought to capture the utmost joy and beatitude in it. I wanted to represent man as a human being born on earth, a being who unlike other creatures made by God, is endowed with reason, has the power to project its own future and doesn’t take everything for granted. “
Music and maternity are two themes recurring almost obsessively in Ion Irimescu’s sculptures and drawing. Perhaps because he has never been content with ways to express these two themes: “ My work springs from a passion that I needed to quell... I passion with which I was born, the passion to inscribe everything I see deep in my memory, to elude oblivion. For this it takes an inborn instinct. If you something is displayed before your eyes for the first time, try to understand what’s behind the manifest, to see beyond what’s apparent: don’t rush to give verdicts, because everything is transforming. You must have the visual capacity to capture an interesting movement of the body, an unusual face, an interesting social aspect to be starting point for your drawings. Any idea can be captured instantly in a sketch. Then comes the processing part in which you can dive deep into certain aspects. Not everybody is able to complete nature, to change certain aspects of nature; only those who are endowed with a creative spirit can do that. It takes more than a mere imitator to do that.”
When I left Ion Irimescu I had a big smile on my face. He told me: “ You see, soon I’ll be 100 years old. You are just a kid. I regret it awfully that I won’t be here when you are 100 years old... I would love to see the world then.” I have realised that behind those apparently light or flattering words, curiosity and passion loom large. The passion of the artist to see the world, to turn thoughts, memories and ideas into art.