99. Still Life with Pitchers and Walnuts [prima jumătate a anilor '40]

Like many of the still life paintings he created over time, "Still Life with Pitchers and Walnuts" appeals to the concept of compositional harmony, where lights and colours outline pictorial objects; the objects perceived as a means - both in the creation and in the decoding of the work - of highlighting chromatic intensity. The placement of a table drawn with light tinges on a black background adds a layer of depth, embossing and specific positioning, that is not just implied, where the space where the objects are place is clearly defined by the background. There are two pitchers on the table: one is vertical, and the other is set in a recumbent position, on the oblique axis of the table. Next to these two pitchers are the outlined renderings of several walnuts, each with a different colouring, depending on the lights and shadows depicted in the painting. This work highlights the artist’s playfulness with lights and shadows, altering the colours of the rendered objects according to their positioning in relation to the light source, and also taking into account the shadows they generate and how the positioning of certain objects influences the way in which the other renderings in the work are perceived Although the renderings of the pitchers are similar to reality, the rendering of walnuts acquires almost geometric twists, bringing to the fore the harmonised geometry sought by Ciucurencu. We can also mention here "the black the Impressionists dreaded, using particular skill to draw the black line, its graphical, energetic and delimiting feature that had made the Impressionists avoid it, due to its contrasting, dramatic and characterising effects". (Mircea Deac, "Ciucurencu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1978). Ciucurencu uses the black, contrasting line to express a realistic, socially inspired, everyday vision. The artist once again manages to use colour as the main pawn behind his work, granting it more than a passive-decorative role, but also imbuing it with valences from the active sphere, in an attempt to convey and express more than what is seen.

References

DEAC, Mircea, "Ciucurencu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1978.

Dimensions

width 45 cm, height 33 cm, custom 33 × 45 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed bottom right, with grey, "AC"

Dating

prima jumătate a anilor '40

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