74. People at the Windows [1977]

Magdalena Rădulescu undertakes a laborious creation process in which symbolism, expressionism, and folk art gradually intersect. The artist is able to harmonize elements that are, seemingly, heterogeneous. The traditional vein and the fairy tale will represent the red thread that binds her entire work. An inexhaustible resource in her creative imagination - childhood - returns recurrently in the popular theme of her paintings. The oriental fragrance of Dobrogea will remain deeply imprinted in the mind of Magdalena Rădulescu. She successively lived in Constanța and Galați, geographical placements under whose protection she had the chance to come into direct contact with the oriental dances and costumes, but also with the Tatars and odalisques that we will later meet in her works. The figures of simple people will gain much higher meanings in her work. Like in a ritual, Magdalena Rădulescu will constantly revisit themes such as "hora" or "călușari". The spectacle, understood as the world of theater, circus, or dance, will also serve as a source of inspiration for her. Magdalena Rădulescu's works appear as a spiritual inheritance that the artist feels responsible for passing on. The folkloric imprint is placed on the canvases laden with pleiades of silhouettes wearing folk costumes, painted with their arms raised, or while they are dancing. Alongside the protagonists representative of national folklore, the artist revitalizes myths, introducing an element that was to become her leitmotif - the horse. With divine origins, a symbol of boldness and courage, the horse completes the triptych of the artist's favorite subjects, along with the dancers and the mask. Magdalena Rădulescu's professional path overlaps with her attempt to identify new forms of compositional structuring. In the artist's work the conventions disappear, the emphasis being more on the representation of folk themes by embedding the symbol. The vibrant, colorful, folk costumes will be representative for each character. Their steps are guided by the lines that demarcate the space into several frames and allow them to pose in various poses - with their hands raised, crossed, clenched to their chest, with their legs apart, in dresses, skirts or pants, with colorful hats and veils. The fervor and agitation of the celebration scenes are captured both with the help of quick brushwork and through the use of shades of red, brown and white, the latter often acquiring a symbolic value.

References

DEAC, Mircea, "Magdalena Rădulescu," Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1980. "Magdalena Rădulescu. Painting and Graphics," The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, 1994. ILNIȚCHI-ARDELEAN, Alexandra, "Magdalena Rădulescu," Brasov Art Museum, Brasov, 2022.

Dimensions

width 53.5 cm, height 65 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, in black, "Magdalena Rădulesco, 1977"

Dating

1977

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