References

MUSCALU ALBANI, Maria, “Corneliu Baba”, Ed. Institutului Cultural Român, Bucureşti, 2008 ŞUŞARĂ, Pavel, “Corneliu Baba”, Ed. Monitorul Oficial, Bucureşti, 2013

oil on cardboard, 38,5x42,5, signed bottom right, in red, Baba

Research information

The artwork was part of the "Valori artistice reprezentative din colecţii bucureştene" exhibition, Art Collections Museum, Bucharest, 2002. The artwork was part of the "Peisajul în pictura românească" exhibition, National Museum of Cotroceni, Bucharest, 2002. The artwork was part of the "Italia văzută de pictori români" exhibition, National Museum of Cotroceni, Bucharest, 2007.

PROVENANCE

Balcica and Constantin Măciucă's collection.

Starting his studies upon art at the Academy of Fine Arts from Bucharest, later Iaşi, Corneliu Baba meets Nicolae Tonitza, who later becomes his teacher, offering all his support and appreciation. In 1941, Corneliu Baba enjoys a public acknowledgement of his passion and talent, being named Head of the local art gallery and assistant at the University of Fine Arts, recently completed with success. After the communism being installed in Romania, he is forced to leave Iaşi and head for Bucharest, where he becomes professor at the “Nicolae Grigorescu” Fine Arts Institute. „Venice requires a high understanding of her unique landscapes. You need an intense emotion to feel its beauty ready to be painted. The venetian motifs are so rich, they can easily seduce one’s eyes.” All of the scenes from Venice feature edifices that are particularly imposing in scale or architecture, located prominently in the foreground and shown in remarcable detail at all levels. It would appear that the artist was intrigued by the notion of buildings: he studied their shapes, their combined configurations and the impression of live that they exude.the tones of red, blue, green and brown, the swathes of black that interrupt the continuity of the wall, and the strokes of white that sorround the blind openings, all create constructions of effective power. Unlike the Venice by Gheorghe Petraşcu whom Baba admired so much, his own Venetian Landscapes are rendered as an isolated individual and represented as if plucked out of a specific time that can never be repeated. Maria Albani noticed the presence of sunset as a motif in the artist’s artwork. In “Venice”, the artist takes a more personal view of the city, his depiction being more evocative of the mythological reality. Venice becomes the image of a myth, with intense force and passion, born from a pure chromatic fusion. (I.C.)

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