80. Butterflies [anii '50]

With multiple participations in the artist's personal exhibitions or reproduced in monographs or albums dedicated to him, this work stands out for its compositional strength and impressive chromatic selection. Ion Țuculescu focuses on constructing a vertical folk landscape, a landscape where plant elements succeed and intuitively combine with popular motifs. The artist to some extent delineates the nature corner, placing it in the lower left part of the work, from the decorative group that spills over the work from the upper left side. The folk period has its genesis in the middle of the last century, but in the absence of clear dating, this period can only be approximately framed in the interval 1947-1956. It is a stage reserved for complex processes that encompass the artist's passions and preferences and his passion for popular motifs. The series of works reveals the oscillations, evolution or returns to elements of interest to the artist. Ion Țuculescu will use his aesthetic and spiritual revelations to extract his works from the sphere of anonymity. The folk period is divided, as Magda Cârneci observes, into three stages, the present work being included in the first one. This is a stage where decorative elements suddenly appear in the works, so we will find, as if detached from the context, stylized vegetable elements according to traditional decorative objects. We will find the moth motif resumed in several works, the artist's aim being to highlight the figurative-decorative dichotomy, at the same time emphasizing the principles of spatiality. If the decorative elements are rather flat, the landscape keeps to some extent its three-dimensionality. The decorative function fades, however, and the distinction between the figurative and popular decorative system is accentuated. The foundation of his creation will therefore stand firm, the Romanian folklore. Țuculescu asserts himself as an authentic interpreter of nature and excels particularly in creating landscapes. The outstanding vocation of the colorist is enhanced by the harmonious alternation of strong tones and the grossly exaggerated use of paste. The artist takes from the pictorial manner of expressionists and excels in illustrating rhythms and in painting strokes. His plastic space, infinite and with unusual manifestations, is crossed by artificial luminosity and brutal chromatics become a leitmotif. He surpasses the decorative, purely imitative framework and tends towards the emotional charging of the canvas by using an exacerbated palette. His ornamental chords are embedded in black accents, a shade that he assimilates from Petrașcu's works. He keeps recognizable fragments of the real space from which he draws inspiration, but modifies them in accordance with his own stimuli. Țuculescu proposes the fantastic aesthetic of fairy tales and often inserts crosses and birds borrowed from folk art. He proposes a new aesthetic order and a different set of values, which he gradually transfers to his works. He reinterprets the folk elements in a deeply modernized manner and transfers the biologist's analytical vision into feverish attempts for exhaustive representation of frescoes dedicated to nature.

References

VLASIU, Ion, "Ion Țuculescu"; Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1966. CÂRNECI, Magda, "Ion Țuculescu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1984.

Dimensions

width 50 cm, height 60 cm

Description

ulei pe pânză, signed bottom left, in black, "ȚUC"

Research information

The artwork participated in the retrospective exhibition "Ion Țuculescu", Dalles Hall, 1965, cat. 49, under the name "Butterflies". The artwork is reproduced in the album "Ion Țuculescu", Ion Vlasiu, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1966, cat. 36, under the name "Butterflies". The artwork is reproduced in the album "Ion Tuculescu", A. E. Baconsky, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1972, cat. 14, under the name "Butterflies". The work participated in the retrospective exhibition "Ion Țuculescu", The National Museum of Art of Romania - The Museum of Art Collections, Bucharest, 1999, cat. 37.

Dating

anii '50

PROVENANCE

the artist's family collection. the collection of Prof. Costin Murgescu, corresponding member of the Academy, and filmmaker Ecaterina Oproiu.

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