Istorici și critici de artă români 1800-1980

Abstract

The first publication of its kind dedicated exclusively to the repertory of Romanian art historians and critics.

The end of 2017 marked a new beginning for Florica Cruceru: after a period marked by unrest, a long-held aspiration that had accompanied her in recent years finally took shape—namely, the creation of a book dedicated to her professional peers, people with whom she shared a common passion for preserving the heritage of Romanian museums, professionals who researched, identified, and collected, often under difficult working conditions, what we call exceptional artistic values.

Florica Cruceru was a personality deeply involved in the modernization of museum institutions and their opening toward the community—a testament to this being the Museum of Art in Constanța. After decades of intense and fruitful activity in the service of cultural and artistic heritage, she chose to dedicate her remaining time to a cherished idea she had always kept in the background: the humane and professional documentation of those who devoted their lives to museum art, “the team with whom she had walked through life,” a discreet army that stood on the same side of the barricade as she did. Three years of sustained, focused work followed, grounded in the same principles that had guided her life and career: respect, courtesy, and care for one’s interlocutor.

I accompanied Florica Cruceru on this journey, initiated at the stage of outlining the working plan and completed with the volume you now hold in your hands—days and nights of consultation, recollections, and analyses preceding each individual choice.

Alice Dinculescu