153. Luxury Shoemaking [anii '30]

The interwar period represented for Romanian artists a stage of search and assumption of creative independence, where the audience and criticism were constantly tested by the renewals brought to visual language. In all this stylistic amalgam, Vasile Popescu's paintings bring a certain air of freshness, noticed, as Ruxandra Dreptu affirms, through a mix of humor and naivety, irony and play. Vasile Popescu's art traverses several stylistic stages, but his desire to form his own identity remained constant, a sincere and uninhibited mirror of his own sensitivity. Perhaps this brought him some difficulty in resonating with the audience of those times, despite critical appreciation and constant presence in exhibitions. The painting "Luxury Shoe Store" is most likely from his late creative period, after 1937. The composition is static, giving a sense of stability and balance. Tints and shades of ochre dominate the specific green of the vegetation in a harmonious relationship. However, the frame gives a certain sense of disorder, as if we are facing a dilemma. This apparent chaos comes from the way he arranges the strong accents of white, subtly nuanced, and how he places the elements of the frame, in a perspective that leans not towards depth, but towards flattening. We no longer find here anything from that geometry and clear delineation of planes, as in the "Landscape with peasant house from Transylvania" (Brukenthal National Museum). We are witnessing rather a sensitive approach, far from being analytical. Vasile Popescu thus passes through his work, from rigidity and pictorial uncertainty to a free, open art, which offers the viewer the joy of interpretation and the discovery of countless meanings.

References

The catalogue of the retrospective exhibition "Vasile Popescu 1894-1944 Painting. Graphic", Ruxandra Dreptu, Bucharest, 1998.

Dimensions

width 25.5 cm, height 21.5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed bottom left, in red, "Vasile Popescu"

Dating

anii '30

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For clarifications regarding the bidding procedure, hammer price costs, guarantee, payment, and collection terms for the winning lot, we recommend carefully reading/re-reading the Bidding Regulations.

For additional information regarding the lot and the auction, please contact the Art Consultants Department.