138. Lila Inside

Although his debut in the Bucharest exhibitions environment takes place in 1908, as he takes part in the "Artistic Youth" exhibitions, Șirato will know true success more than 10 years later, the start of the Interbellum capturing a clear evolution of his art. He organises his first personal exhibition in 1921, which would not go unnoticed by the critique of those times, especially given the fact that he proposed a subject matter of a national interests, the war and the German occupation being illustrated by an artist who chose not to find refuge in Moldavia during the First World War. The exhibition probably marks the entire decade of the artist's creation, the main motif and theme being concentrated around the peasant's figure and his living environment. An artist of change, able to surmount any obstacle in the way of his evolution (he burnt most of his paintings executed in 1928 precisely out of this belief), Șirato would impose upon himself, starting from 1922-1923, a persistent art, when the nature of his oil paintings acquires definition and marks a clear ascension. Freshly enrolled in the Arta Association (1921), he would start exhibiting alongside his colleagues from "The Group of Four", but also alongside Dărăscu, Pallady or Bunescu, in April 1922, at the 5th exhibition of the Association. One year later, he was back in the Romanian Art exhibition environment, and, as Victor Ion Popa, "Adevărului literar și artistic" (Artistic and literary truth) journalist, "Mr. Șirato, once again transformed, brings around several types of works..." Unanimously appreciated as a good drawer, Șirato manages to truly impress as a painter with all the works he presents in 1923, among which the present "Interior". He had changed the paintbrush technique, the colour truly marked the volumes (monumental, actually), and the paintbrush stroke had really become the expressive unity. The atmosphere, as it is conveyed in the current work, corresponds precisely to the pictorial complex coordinated by the tonalisation of light, which here becomes a stylistic trademark.

References

OPREA, Petre, "Francisc Șirato", Art Museum of the Romanian People's Republic, 1965 ISPIR, Mihai, "Șirato", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1979.

Dimensions

width 70 cm, height 50 cm, custom 50 × 70 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom left, with black, "Șirato"

Research information

The artwork was part of the exhibition of the "Arta Română" Society, Exarhu Hall, Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest, March 1923. The artwork is reproduced in the magazine "Adevărul literar și artistic", 4th year, no. 122, March 25, 1923, at p. 6 in the article dedicated to the Society's exhibition by Victor Ion Popa. The artwork was part of the exhibition "Art Safari – Maeștrii artei românești", Chișinău, December 2022.

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