94. Lolote endormie

1908, București - 1993, Tel Aviv

Estimate

EUR 1.000 - 1.600

Sold

EUR 1.800

Session

Thu, 25 May 2023 19:00

Brought to you by

A member of the Romanian avant-garde movement, Jean David completed his studies within several art academies in Paris. He created illustrations for the "Unu" magazine and exhibited within the Bucharest Official Salons. His works were praised by the most significant playwright of the autochthonous absurd theatre - Eugen Ionescu –also a member of the avant-garde movement. After completing his studies, Jean David organised several personal exhibitions outside of the country's borders and permanently left Romania in 1942. His creation is divided between two interconnected directions: commercial art, represented by posters, stamps or surrealist mural and canvas painting. The artist executed a broad series of monumental works for ocean liners in Israel and accepted, with the enthusiasm of a true argonaut, commissions for the most complex works of art. Jean David's deeply eclectic work reminds of expressionism and its melodious rhythms, magic realism and the frenzy of pop art. As an artist of an obviously free spirit, he dares to suggest an innovative style and adopts a decorative manner and a lively, flamboyant chromatic. He wagers on his endless imaginary and gives birth to a Venusian cycle. "Lolote", "Nana", or "Lulu" are assigned a robust image, similarly to Venus of Willendorf. In their representations, we can identify an image of fertility and a totem of good luck. Captured on the beach, sleeping, dreaming, seated on the armchair or on the bed; sketched in the nude, hiding their faces or lacking facial features, Jean David's muses remind the public of the unimaginable power of the feminine presence. The contrasting scenery leaves the entire spotlight to the goddess that is reinterpreted by the artist. Between the coloured bedsheets and the richly patterned wallpaper, the Venusian figure assertively penetrates the painting's close-up.

References

JIANU, Ionel, "Artiști români în occident" ("Romanian artists in the West"), Logos Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005.

Dimensions

width 46 cm, height 38 cm, custom 38 × 46 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom right, in black, "Jean David"

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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