The photos of the lot are informative and indicative, and cannot provide a highly detailed view of the object from all angles. We recommend a careful physical inspection of the lot before bidding.
The photos of the lot are informative and indicative, and cannot provide a highly detailed view of the object from all angles. We recommend a careful physical inspection of the lot before bidding.
With a predisposition for the dramatic side of existence, Corneliu Baba explored throughout his artistic journey the loneliness of human beings and the obsessions arising from the lack of a worldly refuge. Corneliu Baba always believed that man carries the seal of universality with which he is born and cannot betray. Thus, the painter raised in the East, Baba claimed that "the chance of his painting was precisely the misfortune of living in the East". Living life with the solemnity of an unwritten prayer, and exploring painting with the tenacity of an echo, Baba delved into the fatalistic feeling that everything is dust and vanity, a fact that he portrayed in every artwork he created. The "Horrors" cycle, along with the one dedicated to "Mad Kings", represented the artist's renunciation of super-individual tensions, also becoming an almost philosophical experience, mediated only by canvas and craft. The series, dedicated to universal fear and terror, was composed during the '70s-'90s, following three distinctive threads of creative inspiration. Impressed by the world outlined by Francisco Goya, Corneliu Baba creates a universe inspired by the chaos of the night, paying tribute to Goya through a study of fears from 1987, subtitled "Homage to Francisco Goya". In addition to his cultural inspiration, Corneliu Baba also portrayed in his work a collective experience, generated by the 1977 earthquake. One of the works from the "Horrors" cycle is explicitly titled "Earthquake". Surprising by an agglomeration of bodies and faces, an experience that propagates vertiginously, Baba's figures are exhausted by a constant, multivalent bustle, deepening like a subconscious abyss. Collective despair propagates the brutalization of being, man losing his identity in a transfigured amalgam of color and horror. Alongside these two landmarks, one can also add the personal experience that the artist lived in old age. The fear felt in the long nights near the end of life, shapes the substrate of this famous cycle, stretching over a period of nearly 20 years. It was in that preamble of the nights, the artist himself declared, that his "Horrors" cosmo-chaos took birth. The current work, titled "Horrors", made towards the end of the artist's life in 1991, embodies the figures of people distorted by this intrinsic terror, in which Baba found his own "internal exile". The chromatics of the work are heavy and dense, with the predominant shade being English red, alongside orange, ochre and brown. Corneliu Baba wrote in his confessions about "Horror" that "it is a world running madly, aimlessly, as if followed by a nightmare".
References
ȘUȘARĂ, Pavel, “Corneliu Baba. A painter from the East?“, Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2013
MUSCALU ALBANI, Maria, “Corneliu Baba“, Editura Institutului Cultural Român, Bucharest, 2008
Dimensions
width 34.5 cm, height 37 cm
Description
oil on canvas glued to cardboard, signed and dated lower right, in black, "Baba, (19)91"
Dating
1991
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For clarifications regarding the bidding procedure, hammer price costs, guarantee, payment, and collection terms for the winning lot, we recommend carefully reading/re-reading the Bidding Regulations.
For additional information regarding the lot and the auction, please contact the Art Consultants Department.
Detalii
With a predisposition for the dramatic side of existence, Corneliu Baba explored throughout his artistic journey the loneliness of human beings and the obsessions arising from the lack of a worldly refuge. Corneliu Baba always believed that man carries the seal of universality with which he is born and cannot betray. Thus, the painter raised in the East, Baba claimed that "the chance of his painting was precisely the misfortune of living in the East". Living life with the solemnity of an unwritten prayer, and exploring painting with the tenacity of an echo, Baba delved into the fatalistic feeling that everything is dust and vanity, a fact that he portrayed in every artwork he created. The "Horrors" cycle, along with the one dedicated to "Mad Kings", represented the artist's renunciation of super-individual tensions, also becoming an almost philosophical experience, mediated only by canvas and craft. The series, dedicated to universal fear and terror, was composed during the '70s-'90s, following three distinctive threads of creative inspiration. Impressed by the world outlined by Francisco Goya, Corneliu Baba creates a universe inspired by the chaos of the night, paying tribute to Goya through a study of fears from 1987, subtitled "Homage to Francisco Goya". In addition to his cultural inspiration, Corneliu Baba also portrayed in his work a collective experience, generated by the 1977 earthquake. One of the works from the "Horrors" cycle is explicitly titled "Earthquake". Surprising by an agglomeration of bodies and faces, an experience that propagates vertiginously, Baba's figures are exhausted by a constant, multivalent bustle, deepening like a subconscious abyss. Collective despair propagates the brutalization of being, man losing his identity in a transfigured amalgam of color and horror. Alongside these two landmarks, one can also add the personal experience that the artist lived in old age. The fear felt in the long nights near the end of life, shapes the substrate of this famous cycle, stretching over a period of nearly 20 years. It was in that preamble of the nights, the artist himself declared, that his "Horrors" cosmo-chaos took birth. The current work, titled "Horrors", made towards the end of the artist's life in 1991, embodies the figures of people distorted by this intrinsic terror, in which Baba found his own "internal exile". The chromatics of the work are heavy and dense, with the predominant shade being English red, alongside orange, ochre and brown. Corneliu Baba wrote in his confessions about "Horror" that "it is a world running madly, aimlessly, as if followed by a nightmare".
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For clarifications regarding the bidding procedure, hammer price costs, guarantee, payment, and collection terms for the winning lot, we recommend carefully reading/re-reading the Bidding Regulations.
For additional information regarding the lot and the auction, please contact the Art Consultants Department.
References
ȘUȘARĂ, Pavel, “Corneliu Baba. A painter from the East?“, Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2013
MUSCALU ALBANI, Maria, “Corneliu Baba“, Editura Institutului Cultural Român, Bucharest, 2008
Dimensions
width 34.5 cm, height 37 cm
Description
oil on canvas glued to cardboard, signed and dated lower right, in black, "Baba, (19)91"
