Easel painting in the artistic environment between the Prut and Dniester is not very old, maybe a little older than a century. But its crystallization took place only after the Second World War, when various generations of artists returned to Chisinau after studies or art internships abroad (Moisei & Eugenia Gamburd, Dimitrie Sevastianov, Ada Zevin, Mihail Grecu, Valentina Rusu-Ciobanu, Esther Bric, Anatol Grigoraș et al.), who contributed to the establishment of the post-war canon of art. It's just that its definition was long hindered by the prescriptions of socialist realism, embarrassing in every way, because it limited any manifestation of freedom of expression. But more than three decades have passed since the artist was left alone, without social commands, without restrictions, censorship and partisan directing. A real paradigm shift took place, and the young artist found himself alone in front of the easel with white, immaculate white canvases, asking himself the question daily: what to paint and for whom? I closely follow this dilemmatic situation, when the artist is not only an artist, but must become a salaryman, a laborer in different fields. An entire generation (if not two) has risen within this paradigm of the freelancer, and it's as if art itself has acquired new values; some artists have scattered around the world, looking for a place in the networks of the "artistic system", capitalist, competitive, of a kind that surpasses that of the times of "social orders". Others stayed in their native lands, enjoying everything that this option offers them.

In such an atmosphere, of possible duality, the painter Veronica Iftodii (b. 1985, Chisinau) was also formed, who in 2009 received her graduation diploma from the Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts in Chisinau, class to Iurie Matei. Since then he has been painting landscapes, still lifes, portraits, nudes, compositions, which he exhibits in various group exhibitions since his exhibition debut in 2003, as well as personal ones.

Her most recent exhibition – The living reality of painting – is a double solo (with her husband, Gheorghe Lisița) and is now being held in the "Gallery of the Arts" at the National Military Circle in Bucharest. It is perhaps the most extensive and enlightening exhibition of the artist, in which her most refined qualities as a colorist can be seen, and they are grafted onto a precise, thoroughly appropriated drawing. Veronica Iftodii does not aim for large themes, but possesses a strong, juicy, embossed touch, reminding in places even the painting of an Ion Theodorescu‑Sion, one of the most convincing colorists of the Romanian interwar period. But it is not the references to other artists that constitute the distinctive mark of this young painter, but her keen desire to shape her own style, with elegance, taste, finesse and, I would even say, tenderness. She is an artist whose evolution must undoubtedly be followed and greeted with every public appearance.

Text by Vladimir Bulat