Andrei Gabriel Pleșu is a
Romanian
philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic. He has been
intermittently involved in politics assuming the roles of Minister of
Culture (1989-91), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1997-99) and
presidential counsellor for external affairs (2004-05).
Born in
Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleșu, a
surgeon and Zoe Pleșu (born Rădulescu),
he spent much of his early youth in the country side. He started school in
Sinaia, but attended the village school in
Pârscov, in the Nehoiu Valley from 1955 to 1957, and often returned to the mountains during school holidays.
[1] Pleșu attended the
Spiru Haret Lyceum in Bucharest majoring in
humanities, where he graduated at the top of his class.
Pleșu studied art history at the
University of Bucharest and graduated with his
bachelor's in 1971. That year, he accepted a post as a researcher at the Institute of Art History of the
Romanian Academy. In 1972 he married Catrinel Maria Petrulian.
While a student, he became a member of the
Communist Party,
from which he was expelled in May 1982 due to his involvement in the so-called "Transcendental Meditation Affair". For 1975–1977 he received the first of his
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation graduate scholarships to study in
Bonn and
Heidelberg. From 1978 through 1982, along with
Gabriel Liiceanu, he attended
Constantin Noica's informal and semi-clandestine lectures in
Păltiniș. In 1980 he became a faculty lecturer in the Art department at the University of Bucharest.
However in 1982 he was barred from further university teaching for
"political reasons", and took a job as a consultant for the Artists
Union.
He received his second Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 1983–1984,
and upon his return again worked at the Institute of Art History.
In April 1989, Pleșu lost his job at the Institute of Art History due to his open support of
Mircea Dinescu, objected to by the
communist regime. This resulted in his "exile" to Tescani, a village in
Berești-Tazlău commune,
Bacău County, and he was forbidden from publishing. After the
Romanian Revolution of 1989 he was one of the founders of the "New Europe College" an institute of advanced studies, and of the cultural magazine
Dilema (now
Dilema Veche).
He worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest and
is now a professor at the University of Bucharest, where he teaches art
history and philosophy of religion. He continues to be successful as a
writer, and his books have all been well received by critics and
readers.
He also became involved in politics, serving as Romania's Minister of Culture from 1990 to 1991, and
foreign minister from 1997 to 1999. Between 2000 and 2004, Pleșu was a member of the National College for the Study of the
Securitate Archives; he resigned the latter office in protest against political pressures on the committee. After the
2004 elections brought
Traian Băsescu to the office of
President of Romania,
he became presidential counsellor for external affairs, a position he
held until June 2005, when he resigned invoking health issues.
Two volumes were published in 2009, honoring Pleșu, both edited by Mihail Neamțu and Bogdan Tătaru-Cazaban. The first was
O filozofie a intervalului: In Honorem Andrei Pleșu (
A Philosophy of the Interval: In Honor of Andrei Plesu)
entirely in Romanian, and the second was an international
Festschrift in honor of Pleșu's sixtieth birthday,
with essays exploring the themes of his life in the current context.
