Aurelia MOCANU Extracted from the article " Pneuma con Figures" in Cuvântul, no. 7 July 2004
"The force behind Dumitru Radu’s art has been his prodigious imagination and talent for unexpected associations. He has the quite rare ability to bring together figurative and allegorical elements and well-balanced abstract shapes into a coherent whole… Dumitru Radu approached all aspects of contemporary sculpture. His works include monumental sculptures in stone and metal, presented at various art symposia all over the world. At the same time, he masters the secrets of bronze and brass casting and meticulous polishing and he uses carved wood to give life to the smaller works. Born in Vâlcea in 1957, he attended the classes of the prestigious Craiova Fine Arts College and is a graduate of Cluj-Napoca University. After graduation Dumitru Radu entered a different world. It was almost like accepting a challenge. He moved to Bucharest and had his first solo exhibition there, in 1988, as one of the members of the Bucharest art school. Radu belongs to a group of creators whose artistic sensitivity has its origins in the works of Paciurea and has developed along distinctive paths. […] There is little of the existentialist malignance of chimeras in the universe of his art. Nevertheless, his works owe much to a sort of ‘musical Purgatory’ that goes back to his youth, when he drew sketches of his colleagues, wind instrumentalists, while they were practising."
1957: He was born in Pueşti village, Valea-Mare commune, Vâlcea County.
1981–1985: He graduated the courses at the Ion Andreescu Fine Arts Institute in Cluj-Napoca.
1985: He graduates first in his year.
1986: Radu’s career is officially launched when his works are selected for the Sculpture, Drawing and Painting Biennale organised at the Ioan I. Dalles Gallery.
1988 September-October: Radu has his first solo sculpture exhibition at Atelier 35, Orizont Gallery.
1991: Radu discovers his talent for teaching as he starts work as an art teacher at the Children’s Club in Bucharest.
1989 – Present: various solo sculpture and drawing exhibitions, group exhibitions and sculpture symposiums in the country and abroad.
1997: He becomes a teaching assistant at the Sacred Art Department of the Orthodox Theology Faculty of the University of Bucharest.
1999: He receives the Romanian Fine Arts Union Sculpture Award.
2003: He receives the Romanian Fine Arts Union Sculpture Award for the second time.
2009: He is appointed to the position of assistant professor.
2016 October: He exhibits at the Ion Andreescu Fine Arts Biennial in Buzău, where he receives the Sculpture Award.