Hosted in the Bucovina Museum, in Suceava, the Petru Comarnescu Memorial Fund is actually an impressive permanent exhibition, worthy of being known and appreciated by many more. Although the name Petru Comarnescu might not say much today - sadly that is - he was one of the most important and prestigious intelectuals of the last century, and so this exhibition must be visited on every occasion. It was first opened in 1970 at the museum and it is a reproduction of the thinker's study room, with his collection of books, personal objects, photographs, documents, manuscripts, some of the original furniture and decorations, a few artworks. The atmosphere that must have dominated the life and work of Petru Comarnescu is here, and it is fascinating to see how the art critic, writer and thinker worked. The author of several prestigious studies about Iser, Rembrandt, Luchian, Tuculescu and others, as well as a series of works dedicated to the Middle Age monuments in Moldova, is a presence here.
The book collection of over 6500 volumes is of great value and importance for all those who love books. It is interesting to see what titles and authors interested Comarnescu, to imagine how he built this massive selection of works, what was the order in which he kept the volumes. More than 700 of these books also bear the signatures of important Romanian and foreign authors, as Petru Comarnescu was a close friend of Blaga, Arghezi, Sadoveanu and many others.
But who was Petru Comarnescu ? Born in 1905 in Iasi, in an important family, he would later study Law, Philosophy and Literature at the University in Bucharest, and since his student years he proved to be one of the most important young intelectuals of the interwar period. A friend of some the best young intelectuals of his time, he became PHD at the Scuthern University of California, in the study of aesthetics. Over the years, he published a great number of articles, studies and volumes in various fields of art history and art critic, as well as poetry, cinematography, music, philosophy and so on. One of the most valuable and respected Romanian intelectuals, he was especially interested in discovering and writing about the national art and cultural values, and the conections these had with the European and global culture.
He is mostly appreciated for his impressive number of monographical studies about some of Romania's best artists, the likes of Nicolae Grigorescu, Stefan Luchian, Gheorghe Petrascu, Theodor Pallady, Tonitza, Tuculescu, Brincusi and many others. His studies were more than mere presentations of the artists lifes and works, as Petru Comarnescu tried to emphasise the personality and ideas of the artist. The writer also published several volumes of poetry, several translations, some interesting diaries, theatre and movie reviews and many, many others. It is such a shame that Petru Comarnescu is not more familiar to today's readers as he was some decades ago, and maybe it is time for him to once again return to the spot that he deserves.
A visit to this exhibition is a cultural experience of the highest importance for anyone. And the idea of the curators, to keep the atmosphere and charm of this room is simply briliant.
2008-03-26
