The vertical of an undefeated destiny

He couldn’t have become anyone else than who he became, namely, a visual artist a remarkable plastic artist! That is what nature wanted, that is what Destiny decided.

… At the age of only one year and four months, he was attacked by a hard and merciless disease, caused (in those times, in the middle of the 50s) by a monstrous virus that disabled him as well. Poliomyelitis! Both his legs were taken away from him, in as much that he could not stand up.
The parents – Ştefan and Maria Movileanu, kind and respected people from the village Secăreni, Hânceşti, painfully suffered the blight that fell upon the third of their five children, but, however, didn’t fall prey to despair. More so that Vasile showed pronounced signs of innate qualities of somehow seeing differently all that surrounded him – the well, the house, the trees around it.
And then his father, sensing, probably, the innate gift of his son, brought him a big box of “Spartak” coloured pencils. These miraculous object revealed to the little enthusiast of the colors of the rainbow, which he often admired from the doorstep, the mystery that was to foster and protect him throughout his whole life, because immediately, picking up the pencils, he drew for the first time that well, that house, those trees around it and, of course, the rainbow reflected on the blue sky…
This wonder child’s inclinations were appreciated also by the elementary school teacher Grigore Plămădeală, who insisted that Vasilică was by all means enrolled in first grade. His parents did so, the child being carried to school and back home, task dealt with by the whole family – at times his mother, at a time his brother Mihai and his older sister Galina.

Often he was carried by his good-hearted teacher himself. This way he finished the first grade. Naturally, second grade had to follow. But for that, Vasilică needed something very important: to learn to sit upright, meaning he had to move by himself using crutches. That wasn’t possible in the village. Then, his parents were advised to take him to the special boarding school in Ialoveni, where there were children afflicted by poliomyelitis from the whole republic. Here, however, they were told the boy could not be admitted because he couldn’t move with crutches…
We will skip past many sufferings, caused by several extremely difficult operations which the boy had the strength to withstand and which, eventually, helped him use crutches well and move upright. And the movement means for him hope, the joy of living and dreaming. So it happens that, after a third attempt, Vasile Movileanu comes back to Ialoveni.

The machete of the castle made by Vasile Movileanu

… He graduates with distinction from the boarding school, carrying in his soul gratitude and great and sincere love for the teachers and medical staff there, but most of all for his dear and respected teacher Valeria Stog who,  through her rare pedagogical finesse, inspired faith in his strengths and the courage to face his destiny.

From then on walking vertically and with his head held up high towards his own becoming, Vasile Movileanu, who was already a well-known author of dozens of paintings and graphic works, presents himself in the year 1978 to the Visual Arts School “I. Repin” in Chişinău (currently the Visual Arts College “A. Plamădeală”).
Of course, the ambition, insistence, perseverance, but especially the talent of this young man deeply impressed the examiners.
So it happens that the prestige of this institution will be marked, years later, by another reference name – that of the exceptional visual artist Vasile Movileanu.

Vasile Movileanu Student at Polygraphic Institute of Moscow

Following is another conquered stronghold, another mountain climbed – the Polygraphic Institute of Moscow, the Graphics degree. And not a day without painting, without drawing, without effort and creative work. His particular inexhaustible interior energy and inspiration, sources of new intellectual efforts, make Vasile Movileanu one of the most renowned authors of book and easel graphics in the Republic of Moldova.
Today, the laureate of numerous awards, member of the International Association of Plastic Artists (UNESCO), he is a signatory of more than 30 illustrated children’s books by the writers Grigore Vieru, Spiridon Vangheli, Dumitru Matcovschi, by the classic of Italian literature, Giani Rodari, and many more.
A (without exaggeration) worldwide renown was brought to him by the graphic works for the book “Three wonderful stories” by Mihail Sadoveanu. Regarding this subject: one of the illustrations in this book was included in a prestigious Japanese catalogue, edited in 2000, were the name Vasile Movileanu is featured among the (65) most renowned graphic artists of the world!

This utterly special event was anticipated by other achievements, no less valuable and important: participation at the most prestigious exhibitions in Romania (1991, 1994, 1996), in Bratislava (1997), in Belgrade (1998), as well as the numerous awards, distinctions, and diplomas.

We would also like to mention that a series of the master Vasile Movileanu’s works are found in the National Art Museum in Chişinău, in the Art Museum in Tulcea, Romania, as well as in private collections in France, Russia, Italy, the U.S., etc.
In fact, these brief notes are, we believe, incomplete, if we would not remark another edifying detail: the plastic artist Vasile Movileanu did not only make a name for himself in the spirituality and culture of this nation, but also created a family to match: his kind and loving wife, Mrs Ana, is an excellent creator of embroideries and crochets with national motifs, his eldest daughter, Victoria, is an accessory designer, and his youngest daughter, Cristina, licensed in arts, clearly following in her father’s footsteps.

…We read somewhere an art critic’s appraisal that plastic artist Vasile Movileanu’s entire creation radiates warmth, light, and poetry. A great truth! Because so it is: light and poetry (but also his undefeated thirst and love for life, we would add) held Vasile Movileanu to the vertical. Literally and figuratively!

Mihai Morăraş