Yanchelevichi and the nostalgia of Bessarabian childhood

Abstract

Idel Ianchelevici, who became a sculptor and illustrator, was born at the end of the first decade of the XX century. He proved from an early age a native talent for drawing and modeling clay on the banks of the Prut River. He had a life permanently under the sign of fortune being surrounded by true friends, who were always by his side Romania, but also in Belgium and France. After the mandatory military service in Galati and the beginning of his artistic career, Ianchelevici left for Belgium for good, where he studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège. He dedicated his entire life to the art, being supported by his wife, the sculptress Betty Frenay, all the time by his wife. She dedicated her life to her husband and his art, never practicing as a sculptress, considering that two artists was too much in one family. Throughout his artistic life, Ianchelevici used many types of materials in sculpture: gypsum, clay, bronze, stone, marble, and the proper technique for each type of material, including the direct carving of stone and marble. Regardless of the used technique and materials, the motifs related to childhood memories were present in his works his entire life, following him and being part of what he was: motherhood, fatherhood, barefoot small children of peasants, and the animal world even through he never returned to his birthplace.