The National Cotroceni Museum have opened, on Wednesday, March 18th 2009, 6pm, in the Medieval spaces of the former Cotroceni Monastery the exhibition of sculptures and drawings by Ion Vlad.
     The sculptor went abroad in 1965, at 45, and moved to Paris. He left Romania as an accomplished artist who decorated numerous public spaces and was a renowned professor at the Architecture School in Bucarest. He was awarded the state’s highest distinction in 1964 followed shortly by an extensive monography published at Meridiane Publishing House. In Paris, he developed his figurative style, in a classic modernism approach. In 1967, Pierre Cardin commisioned five sculpures for the Cardin space in Paris and, in 1969 Ion Vlad becomes a professor of sculpture and drawing at the American Center in Paris, pursuing his teaching career started in Romania. He was awarded the French citizenship in 1972 and becomes a profesor at the Sorbonne.
     He was elected honorary member of the Romanian Academy in 1991, one prior to his death. The exhibition aims at reintroducing Ion Vlad to the Romanian public, to whom he is relatively unknown.