Geoffrey Tyler's thoughts on Ovidiu Maitec

Maitec, a sculptor, was a friend of the Gorduz and had a studio nearby. His material was wood and his studio at times bore some semblance to a lumber yard, since he avidly collected aged wood for use in his work. The collection includes a small work entitled ‘Gate’, which I bought in a gallery, not knowing the artist. Maitec’s work seemed to me to embody two features. One was of course the object shaped from the raw wooden material. But equally important, perhaps more so in some compositions, was the appearance and texture of the wood itself. Some of Maitec’s wood must have been centuries old and the colour, graining and texture of the wood, even in the raw state, had a majesty about it which Maitec enhanced as he worked with it.

He worked not only with old wood. I remember when Romania allowed the first foreign bank to set up a branch in Bucharest. The bank wanted to display some Romanian art and in the lobby, prominently displayed as one entered, there was a large Maitec sculpture.