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Andrei Pleşu

Andrei Pleşu was born on 23 August 1948, in Bucharest. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts within the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, thus becoming a specialist in Art History and Theory. He was awarded, as well, a Ph.D. in Art History by the University of Bucharest. His doctoral thesis was entitled The Sentiment of Nature in European Culture.

Andrei Pleşu
Andrei Pleşu taught as an associate professor with the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest (1980-1982). He gave lectures on the history of Romanian Modern Art, a field of study which he offered a critical approach as well. He also taught as a professor of Philosophy of Religion at the Faculty of Philosophy within the University of Bucharest in the intervals between 1991-1997 and 2000-2001.

Andrei Pleşu has been the founder and director of the weekly cultural magazine Dilema (presently Dilema Veche) since 1993, as well as the founder of the New Europe Foundation and the rector of the New Europe College in Bucharest, since 1994.

Andrei Pleşu also held the position of Minister of Culture of Romania between December 1989 and October 1991. A few years later, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, that is, from December 1997 until December 1999. In 2005, after the presidential elections, he was offered the position of Foreign Affairs Senior Adviser to the President of Romania. A few months later, Andrei Pleşu decided to resign from this position.

He published numerous studies and articles in well-known Romanian and foreign magazines. His books were translated into English, French, German, Swedish, Hungarian and Slovakian.


Books

Travel through the World of Forms, Bucharest, Meridiane, 1974
Picturesque and Melancholy, Bucharest, Univers, 1980; Humanitas, 1992 (2nd edition)
Francesco Guardi, Bucharest, Meridiane, 1981 (published in English, French, and German)
The Eye and the Things, Bucharest, Meridiane, 1986
Minima Moralia: Elements for an Ethic of the Interval, Bucharest, Cartea Românească, 1988; Humanitas, 1994 (2nd revised edition)
The Tescani Diary, Bucharest, Humanitas, 1993
The Language of Birds, Bucharest, Humanitas, 1993
Faces and Masks of Transition, Bucharest, Humanitas, 1996
On Angels, Bucharest, Humanitas, 2003
Public Obscenity, Bucharest, Humanitas, 2004

Audio books

On Angels, Humanitas Multimedia, 2003
Noica (co-author Gabriel Liiceanu), Humanitas Multimedia, 2003
Comedies at the Gates of the Orient, Humanitas Multimedia, 2005

Awards and Titles

1980- Prize for Art Criticism awarded by the Artists' Union of Romania
- Prize for Essay awarded by the Writers' Association of Bucharest
1994- Prize Best Book of the Year, awarded for Limba păsărilor (The Language of Birds), Cluj-Napoca
1996- Prize Best Book of the Year, awarded by the Association of Professional Writers of Romania for Chipuri şi măşti ale tranziţiei (Faces and Masks of Transition)
2004- Prize Success of the Year, awarded by the Association of Editors of Romania for Despre Îngeri (On Angels)
1990- Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France
1993- New Europe Prize for Higher Education and Research, awarded by Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), Wassenaar, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (SCASSS), Uppsala, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
1999- Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur of France (in March awarded as Commandeur and in December as Grand Officier)
2000- Dr. phil. honoris causa of the Albert-Ludwigs Universität of Freiburg, Germany
2001- Dr. phil. honoris causa of the Humboldt-Universität of Berlin, Germany

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