Room & Book is pleased to present a group of recently rediscovered vintage C-type photographs documenting the sculpture of Ovidiu Maitec (1925-2007), one of the most important Romanian artists of the Twentieth-century. The presentation of the photographs below coincides with an exhibition marking the centenary of Ovidiu Maitec’s birth which will open at the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania, in June 2025.

Recently rediscovered in France, the 34 black and white photographs were made at the time of Ovidiu Maitec’s major retrospective held at the Salle Dalles, Bucharest in 1985. The exhibition included all the artist’s most important works. Many of the photographs were made by the artist himself, others were taken by the artist’s son Stéphane who also enlarged them.

Ovidiu Maitec was born in Arad, Romania in 1925. After training at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, he acquired a reputation for monumental sculpture and was later to receive numerous public commissions including the memorial to the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu in Oradea (1976). International interest focused on his small-scale woodcarvings such as those in Jim and Helen Ede’s collection at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Mostly carved from walnut wood these incorporate Romanian folk art traditions, the use of negative space and repeated motifs such as gates, thrones and birds.

Maitec held several solo shows in the UK between 1969 and 1977, including Cercle Gallery, London (1969); Kettle's Yard Gallery, Cambridge (1973); Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh (1974); Bleucoat Gallery, Liverpool (1974); and Alwin Gallery, London (1977).

The British curator and collector, Jim Ede acquired several works by Maitec including Angel (1971) later given to the Tate Gallery, and the wooden sculpture Radar II (1970) which remained at Kettle's Yard when the Ede’s gifted their home and collection to the University of Cambridge in 1973. Radar II was included in Romanian Art Today, a group exhibition organised by Richard Demarco in Edinburgh in 1971, following which Ede organised the 1973 exhibition of Maitec’s small-scale woodcarvings at Kettle’s Yard.

Much of Maitec’s personal archive was destroyed by fire in 1989 during the Romanian Revolution including seventy wood and bronze sculptures, his tools, library and his correspondence with Jim Ede. The rediscovery of these surviving photographs coincides with an exhibition marking the centenary of Ovidiu Maitec’s birth which will open at the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania, in June.