129. Nude

A member of the Romanian avant-garde movement, Jean David created illustrations for the magazine "Unu" and exhibited at the Official Salons in Bucharest. His works were praised by the most notable playwright of the native absurd theater - Eugen Ionescu – also a member of the avant-garde movement. After completing his studies, Jean David organized several personal exhibitions abroad and permanently left Romania in 1942. His work is divided into two interconnected directions: commercial art, represented by posters, stamps and murals; and easel painting with a surrealist architectural style. The artist executed a vast series of monumental works for cruise ships in Israel, and accepted, with the spirit of a true argonaut, orders for some of the most complex works. Jean David's profoundly eclectic work evokes expressionism with its melodious rhythms, magical realism, and the buzz of pop art. An artist with a pronounced free spirit, he dares to propose an innovative style and adopts a decorative manner and a lively, exuberant chromatics. He relies on his inexhaustible imaginary and gives birth to a Venusian cycle. "Lolote", "Nana", or "Lulu" receive a robust appearance, similar to the Venus of Willendorf. In their representations, we identify a figure of fertility and a totem of luck. Caught on the beach, sleeping, dreaming, sitting on an armchair or bed; sketched nude, hiding their face or devoid of facial features, Jean David's muses remind the audience of the unimaginable power of female presence. The contrasting decor leaves the goddesses reinterpreted by the surrealist artist in the entirety of the spotlight.

References

JIANU, Ionel, "Romanian Artists in the West", Logos Publishing, Bucharest.

Dimensions

width 50 cm, height 61 cm

Description

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

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