Leonard Rachita was born in 1952 in Blăgești (Romania). In 1975, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Nicolae Grigorescu in Bucharest, Department of Sculpture. After completing his studies, he was engaged in ornamental decoration, restoration, and art exhibition organisation. Various scholarships enabled him to study abroad. In addition to his exhibiting activities, which included personal and collective exhibitions at home and abroad, his symposium activities are also important. As a sculptor he participated in numerous work meetings all over the world. In 1986, he founded the International Association of Sculpture Symposia (AISS), within the framework of which he hosted meetings and conferences dealing with the topics of sculpting symposia and research of this type of creative work in the context of contemporary art. He has received numerous awards for his work. The artist’s study of sculpture forms gradually expanded to the space of nature, with subtle interventions into the landscape, the play of light and shadow that he often also records through the camera lens. Leonard Rachita has lived and worked in Paris since 1993.
The sculpture in Portorose belongs to the Romanian sculptor’s series entitled The Cycle of Felt Architecture. In it, he explores the relationship between two artistic categories – architecture and sculpting. Even in its title, Mastaba, the characteristic form of these objects symbolically alludes to ziggurats, religious buildings of ancient civilisations of the Near East, and pyramidal tomb structures of the early Egyptian period. Rachita’s interpretation of the pyramid is unique. The simple square foundation is set on a slightly elevated iron construction. As it rises in height, it develops a trapezoid form with a flat upper surface. All four sides of the pyramid are evenly spaced with vertical rectangular piers. The sculptor managed to capture the essence of Istrian stone in the compactness of structure and inviolability of the core. In this rigorous, closed, and unfunctional form Rachita maintains memory layers of human cultural history as well as the attachment to elements of traditional countryside architecture of his home Transylvania. The author perceives sculpting as art that, together with architecture, is capable of enriching the public space and instilling in it poetic and emotive dimensions.
