Those are not just sculptures&drawings – ”Ion Irimescu” Art Museum

 Although our life adventure takes us through unexpected places,

hometown and memories will always be there for us!

I was born in Falticeni, Suceava County, and I’m proud of that not just because it’s a nice little town, but for all the big personalities that are related to this city. And one of them is the Romanian sculptor Ion Irimescu.

If we want to browse Ion Irimescu’s biography, we will notice right from the beginning that he was born in a village near Falticeni, having a mother with French roots and a peasant but hard-working father. He attended ”Nicu Gane” College, then he became a student of the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest, but another important step was his scholarship in Paris. Through it not only he gets to inspire art every day, but also to participate in exhibitions and to make a clearer picture of this world.

Ion Irimescu has been and will be a great name both nationally and internationally. Among his achievements we can recall:
-the Honorary Mention from French Artists’ Society for his Self Portrait,  exhibited at the Spring Salon in Paris
-his exhibitions in Venice, Paris, Bern, Helsinki, Budapest, Dresden, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Paris, Stockholm, London, Rome, Berlin, Bonn, Istanbul, Ankara, Tel Aviv, Damascus, Cairo, Alexandria.
-he was the President of the Union of Artists between 1978 and 1990
-he was member of honor of the Romanian Academy (1992)
– in 2001 he received the Excellence Prize in Romanian Culture

Although he lost several fingers as a child when a bomb found in the ground exploded in his hand, Ion Irimescu did not give up his passion. Moreover, this unfortunate accident spurred him even more, having as a model another Romanian sculptor Ion Jalea, who lost his entire hand. He said once that even when he was little he had this instinct to scratch everything with coal trying to draw something or to shape pieces of clay.

“If you want to do something, do it!”

-Ion Irimescu

Towards the end of his life he retired to Falticeni, where he took care of his museum. He said if one wants to know him, he must have a talk with his works. Yes.. he loved each and every work of his. This is a sure thing!
The museum building was built in 1846 in one level and a second level was built in 1890. The building had various destinations (County Administrative Palace, The Headquarters of the County Prefecture etc), but since 1974 the building houses the largest author collection in the whole country.

Today we can find at ”Ion Irimescu Museum” over 300 sculptures and 1,000 drawings that reflect the major themes around which inspired the artist the most: Mythology. Motherhood. Music.  Man & his destiny in the universe.