As luck would have it, it did so on the very days I was reading A journey into the world of forms (Publishing house humanity, Bucharest, 2023) to find on youtube a recording of an older edition of the show professionals. The publication, which was hosted by Andrii Pleshu.

Stimulated by the questions of Yevgenia Vaudet, at that time apparently in great shape, the founding director dilemma also evokes humor, self-irony and, how else? than the wisdom specific to the dilemma person, the moment of choice for specialization History and theory of art from the Bucharest Institute of Fine Arts. As well as about what his first author’s volume looked like (namely A journey into the world of forms), and the reluctance with which he looked at this debut book while recording the interview. And even if the volume appears again, in excellent graphic conditions 2023, undoubtedly with the will and consent of Mr. Plesha, as they appeared a few months ago Eye and things and Masterpieces in dialogue, much of the reservations and reluctance of the past remained. All the evidence is there Clarifying note in which the signatory of the book explains the reasons for which he decided to expose himself, to submit once more public courts, updating the texts written in the first half of the 70s or by the student Andrii Plesha, on the verge of graduation (it is about Bachelor work), or newly graduated from the Institute of Art Studies named after

Looking through the book, I less, I would even say, did not notice those “examples of frankness and premature theses” referred to in the introduction, rather than what the author himself calls. real interrogation. It remains a constant of the entire work. I agreed with Professor Ion Frunzetti, who is in the very first lines Preface written for the 1974 edition bluntly stated that this debut book would “please many in mid-life” and I would even say that many would be satisfied even at the end of their careers. I also appreciated the generosity and foresight with which the professor sensed in Discipoli a worthy personality, perhaps not necessarily to replace them, but primarily to continue Tudor Viana, Calinescu, George Oprescu, Peter Comarnescu. “Andrii Pleshu,” wrote Ion Frunzetti, “I see in him a torchbearer for long distances.”

Therefore, assuming, but by no means in a Sartrian way, a choice and overcoming his initial surprises, dissatisfaction and reluctance, Andrii Pleshu was a critic and art historian for a long number of years. And not just any, and not just any. I don’t know, maybe it’s just laziness, to which today’s philosopher dedicated the introductory essay of the book dozens of years ago (Words about laziness-Against lazy hardworking people) this is what prevents me from finding out whether Andrii Pleshu also did what is called friendly criticism in the first years of his career. But I know how certain it is that the philosopher of today has from the beginning been occupied with defining the critic’s mission and purpose in this world. And also classifications of his speech.

Critics see Andriy Plesha as a mediator. Moralist. A person endowed with the mission of intercession through research, emphasizes Andrii Plesha, between an art lover and a supplier of art. And I think that the author insists on the word research for a reason. It is understood, perhaps, as an antidote to dilettantism and free speech. Placed under the sign of ambiguity, the critic is neither a creator in the full sense of the word, nor a consumer of any art, nor a pedantic researcher of the field called art. It is a mixture, it is a little bit of all of these, thus returning to him “the role of revealing in a work of art that percentage experience whoever did it existential baggage which supplanted the neutrality of the Image, changing it to the form of drama” (cf. Considerations about the relationship between image and form in fine art). And in the essay under the title Art studies as an introduction to the way of being, theorist Andriy Pleshu distinguishes three types of critical discourse. Criticism – lyrical commentary, speculative criticism, technical criticism. Andriy Pleshu analyzes the essence, methods, advantages, applicability and possible degree of usefulness of the respective types and clearly defines their limits.

In my opinion, rigor is a characteristic feature of all the essays, studies, prefaces, commentaries anthologized in the six parts of the book. Nothing is left to chance, no idea, no concept evoked in the demonstration is launched without minimal clarification and explanation. Andriy Pleshu is by no means obsessed with definitions, but he is undoubtedly concerned with clarity. Therefore, in the meaningful essays contained in the first two parts of the book (An Essay on the Experiential Value of Forms and Variations on the theme of the sublime) really wants to determine what are the differences and relationships between the object in real life, the Image, the Form, how the transition from the Image to the Form is achieved, what composition and plastic space mean and how all these concepts materialize over the centuries. Andriy Pleshu also wants to know and share with the reader what the true essence of the concept of the sublime is. And the clarity noted above goes hand in hand with the importance given to bibliographical grounds. Having finished his studies in a period of relative ideological openness, Andrii Pleshu certainly read all or almost all of what our publishing houses published at that time, associating this reading with many books in foreign languages. French, English, German. Appreciation for the book is also evident in the reviews devoted to some of the reference species, with implications for updating research methods. The entire named sequence Perspectives on people, topics, books prove it I’m pointing here to the real critical inquiry that comes from reading a book The world is like a labyrinth Gustava René Hoke.

We find in A journey into the world of forms well-thought-out and carefully reasoned assessments of Van Gogh or Paul Klee, of Petrashka and the metaphorical-linguistic meanings of colors for Romanians, we find the first signs of a concern for the gaze, a concern that will take shape even more strongly in Eye and things and in Masterpieces in dialogue. I read with delight the work entitled About the limits of culture in which Andrii Pleshu puts Emma Bovary and Don Quixote face to face. –

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