147. Clay apostle [2009]

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147. Clay apostle [2009]

Ştefan Râmniceanu

1954, Ploiești

Estimate:

EUR 2.500 - 3.500

Sold

EUR 2.750

oil and sand on plywood, 200 x 64 cm, 200 Ã 64 cm, signed, dated, entitled and dedicated, on the reverse, with black, "Ștefan Râmniceanu, Apostol de lut, 2009, Un semn prietenesc cu prețuire pentru Radu Boroianu" ("Ștefan Râmniceanu, Clay apostle, 2009, A kind sign with appreciation for Radu Boroianu")

PROVENANCE

the Collection of the Burileanu-Boroianu family heirs.

In Ștefan Râmniceanu's suggestively abstract painting, one often glimpses a corner of a Byzantine icon, a shield, a halo, suggesting the roots of Byzantine spirituality, an exercise in synthesis between the West and the East. In 1988, Ștefan Râmniceanu opened at Curtea Veche, the exhibition "Ferecătura" ("The Binding"), his last great event before choosing the path of exile, but also a tribute to the personality of Constantin Brâncoveanu, founder and man of letters, political figure. In 2014, on the 300th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Brâncoveanu family, Ștefan Râmniceanu returned to the Romanian art scene with his retrospective exhibition at Mogoșoaia Palace, "Traces". The works, belonging to different cycles, series entitled "Ferecătura" ("The Binding"), "Manuscris" ("Manuscript"), "Cămașa zidurilor" ("The Shirt of the Walls"), "Cărturari" ("Bookmakers"), "Apostolii de lut" ("Apostles of Clay"), "Stâlpul" ("The Pillar"), "Idoli" ("Idols"), "Centauri" ("Centaurs"), "Nopțile de aur" ("Golden Nights"), "Omul universal" ("The Universal Man"), "Scrisori din insule" ("Letters from the Islands"), highlight the artist's predilection for the neo-Byzantine direction, which began in the 1980s. In the "Universal Man" cycle, the inner anatomy becomes a place of collective memory. The works become new archetypes of a future mythology. In the "Clay Apostles", the body becomes an axis mundis, a path, a bridge, a place of passage and spiritual initiation.

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