Biography
Andrei Gabriel Pleşu (b. August 23, 1948) is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.
Born in Bucharest, he studied at the University of Bucharest and in the 1970s and 1980s received two Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Scholarships to study in Bonn and Heidelberg. 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 history of arts and philosophy of religion. As a researcher at the Institute for Art History in Bucharest in the 1980s, along with Gabriel Liiceanu, he attended Constantin Noica's informal and semi-clandestine lectures in Păltiniş.
Pleşu's early works revolved around art history and theory, but, in time, his essays, published in cultural magazines and elsewhere, became oriented towards cultural anthropology and philosophy. His exhuberant writing style gained him recognition as one of the leading Romanian essayists of his age.
A scandal with the communist regime resulted in his exile to Tescani, a village in Bereşti-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 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, Pleşu 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.
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