46. Journey [1987]

Growing up in the world of Oltenian fairy tales and celestial beings, Sabin Bălașa develops since childhood a deep connection with nature and the cosmos. The connection with fundamental values of culture, religion and classic art is helped by the vast library founded by his father in the house in Olt County. A multivalent artist, with a clear humanistic openness, Bălașa will gradually establish himself as a painter, filmmaker and writer He builds his own magical and transcendental universe, with spiritual elements deeply embedded in the depths of his being. Starting from the belief that the theme of art is life itself, he will use his knowledge accumulated in his childhood and during his youth. He assumes the social-artistic mission usually intended for creators and prefigures the artist's exaltation before the infinite cosmos. Most of his works are set in a fantastic space, a choice determined in particular by the use of blue, the dominant colour in his creations. The blue used by Bălașa gives art the feeling of eternity. His chromatic becomes a spiritual matrix of Romanian people, having its origins in Eminescu's lyrism and the myth of Miorița. The artist encodes visual metaphors through a series of archetypal symbols that he translates into contemporary allegories. The living creatures imagined by Bălașa represent an interference between the fabulous figure of a unicorn and the mythical image of a centaur. They evolve to the statute of symbols of heroism and virtues in relation to other characters and the entire ensemble of the work. For Bălașa, the animal enhances the fabulous meaning of the painted metaphors. The essential theme of the cosmic romance imagined by the artist will remain, however, the human figure. The painter depicts the man in his youth and offers the feminine character the statute of leitmotiv of his work. Captured nude, with more or less articulated physiognomies, Bălașa's models acquire, one by one, the statute of muses of the rain, mothers of the earth, goddesses or caryatids of civilisation. The man will therefore be devoted to the artist's dreams and desires. The fantastic art of Bălașa, unquestionably oriented towards the universe, is often subject to an unknown place and an uncertain timeframe. The affective value of his works is intensified by the visual coagulation of the myth, history and of the boundless expanse of his imagination.

References

DEAC, Mircea, "Sabin Bălașa", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1984. BĂLAȘA, Tudor, "Sabin Bălașa", Monitorul Oficial Publishing House, Bucharest, 2013.

Dimensions

width 80 cm, height 59.5 cm

Description

acrylic on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, in red, "Sabin Bălașa, (19)87"

Lot.notes

on the back, the dedication of the artist: "Per Bino, Con amicitia permanenta, di tuta mia anima, per sui caratero umane", Sabin.

Dating

1987

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