132. Sleeping Lolote

As a member of the avant-garde movement in Romania, Jean David completed his studies at several Parisian art academies. He created illustrations for the "Unu" magazine and exhibited at the Official Salons in Bucharest. His works were praised by the most significant playwright of the indigenous Absurd Theater - Eugen Ionescu – who was also a member of the avant-garde movement. After completing his studies, Jean David organized several personal exhibitions abroad and permanently left Romania in 1942. His creation is divided into two interconnected directions: commercial art, represented by posters, stamps or murals and easel painting, of a surrealist nature. The artist executed a vast series of monumental works for Israeli ocean liners and accepted, with the enthusiasm of a true Argonaut, orders for the most complex works. Jean David's deeply eclectic work evokes expressionism with its melodious rhythms, magical realism and the bustle of pop art. As an artist with a pronounced free spirit, he dares to propose an innovative style and adopts a decorative manner and a lively, exuberant chromatic. He relies on his inexhaustible imaginary and gives birth to a Venusian cycle. "Lolote", "Nana", or "Lulu" receive a robust appearance, similar to the Venus of Willendorf. In their representations we identify a figure of fertility and a totem of luck. Spotted on the beach, sleeping, dreaming, sitting on the armchair or on the bed; sketched nude, hiding their faces or without facial features, Jean David's muses remind the public of the unimaginable power of the female presence. The contrasting decor leaves the goddess reinterpreted by the surrealist artist in the full light of the spotlights. Between the colorful sheets and the wallpaper loaded with patterns, the Venusian body decisively breaks through in the foreground of the painting.

References

JIANU, Ionel, "Romanian Artists in the West", Logos Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005.

Dimensions

width 45.5 cm, height 38 cm

Description

ulei pe pânză, signed lower right, in black, "Jean David"; titled lower left, in black, "Lolote endormie"

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