Picunov Alexandra

About

Alexandra Picunov-Tîrţău was born on July 20, 1928, in Chișinău. She studied at the "Domnița Bălașa" High School in Bucharest. In 1947, she returned to Chișinău with her family. In 1952, she graduated from the "I. Repin" School of Fine Arts, Sculpture Department. She practiced various genres of sculpture, working with different materials (wood, plaster, stone), experimenting with pedestal sculpture and small-scale plastic art. Alexandra Picunov created compositions and portraits, works of a symbolic or allegorical nature. In pedestal sculpture, she developed the traditions of national art (Hora, Girl with a Yoke, Harvest, Musicians - all created in 1968). She worked on numerous portraits: Portrait of the Builder Romanciuc (1964), Ana Ungureanu (1968), etc. However, the material that made her famous was chamotte. Inspired by folk art and decorative art, she created a series of works with favorite themes evoking the earth, the native land, femininity, and the dignity of motherhood. However, Alexandra Picunov-Țîrțău transcended the strictly ethnographic framework, creating the works The Spring of Life, Grape Harvest, Spinner, Girls with Sunflowers, The Gate of Nature (1968), all in chamotte. Monumental-decorative compositions followed, in which, besides the decorative aspect, a philosophical vein persisted: Infinity (1972), Fertility (1975), Germ (1979), Tobacco Worker (1981). The Breath of the Earth is the name of a composition, conceived in the aluminum technique (1980), followed by the cycle Poem of the Earth, initiated in 1983. For 15 years, the sculptress explored various subjects within this cycle: The Game of Time, Purgatory, The Burden of the Earth. Following the tragic events at Chernobyl, she created the work Chernobyl (1988). In 1962, Alexandra Picunov-Tîrţău became a member of the Union of Visual Artists of the USSR. The year 1998 brought her the award for outstanding merits in the prosperity of visual arts in the Republic of Moldova. She created numerous portraits of her colleagues, such as those of painters V. Rusu-Ciobanu (1975), M. Grecu (1976), E. Romanescu (1985), and sculptor L. Dubinovschi (1976). The person who continuously inspired her was her sister, actress Constanţa Tîrţău. In 1980, she created the sculptural portrait of actor Dumitru Caraciobanu. An important page in her creation is the bust of Lucian Blaga on the Alley of Classics in Chişinău. Between 1999 and 2002, she worked on the cycle Mirrors, which also marked the end of her life cycle. Since 1954, she has participated in republican and union exhibitions. She has had several solo exhibitions in Chișinău, as well as abroad: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Canada, Italy, etc. Together with painter Ada Zevin, she exhibited at the Romanian Cultural Foundation in Bucharest (1996). The National Museum of Art in Chișinău, the "Tretyakov" Gallery in Moscow, and other major museums hold works by sculptor Alexandra Picunov-Tîrțău in their collections. Alexandra Picunov-Tîrțău passed away on October 23, 2002, in Chișinău.