3. Travellers

The fantastic realism and the characters of a distressingly strange nature dominate Ștefan Câlția's creation. The inclination towards values, traditions and divinity transforms his works into real pictorial poems. He narrates using signs, lines and shapes, creating an actual literature of ink on paper. The grammar that the artist uses is strictly linked to plastic signs. Sometimes he paints in black and white, emphasizing ink and charcoal. His work is thorough, as he establishes a very clear geometry. In Câlția's work, even figurative painting can be deconstructed into several elements. He takes over fragments from other people's stories, transposing them into reasons for image and colour. He will be mostly focused on the journey theme. The moments spent by the artist in the middle of nature can be interpreted as actual initiation journeys. He identifies two possible ways to interpret the journey. From a denotative point of view, Câlția identifies a horizontal pathway, in which the landscape is gradually lost. From a connotative point of view, which he would adopt and use in his work, the artist refers to what he calls "the real journey", in which the character floats and rises above the terrestrial, covering a much larger knowledge horizon. This way, he also takes responsibility for the codification of another motif in his creation - the flight. Ștefan Câlția sketches portraits of hypnotised travellers who direct themselves towards an uncertain destination. He draws his inspiration from the stories constructed by Pieter Bruegel, as well as from the complex compositions by Hieronymus Bosch, establishing, through drawing, the silences of his heroes.

References

Steluța Pestrea Suciu, "Interviu cu pictorul Ștefan Câlția", in Astra Magazine, no. 3-4, 2016.

Dimensions

width 94 cm, height 104 cm, custom 104 × 94 cm

Description

ink on paper, signed bottom centred, with black, in monogram, "Câlția"; numbered bottom left, with pencil, "51"; entitled on the reverse, "Călătorii"

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