155. Hydrangeas [1994]

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155. Hydrangeas [1994]

Constantin Piliuţă

1929, Botoşani - 2003, Bucureşti

Estimate:

EUR 3.000 - 5.000

Sold post auction

EUR 3.000

References

Constantin Piliuță. Peisajele amintirii' ('Constantin Piliuță. Landscapes of Memory'), Sport Turism Publishing House, Bucharest, 1983. CEBUC, Alexandru, 'Constantin Piliuță', ARC 2000 Publishing House, Bucharest, 2002.

oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, 60 Ã 60 cm, signed and dated bottom right, in black, 'C. Piliuță, (19)94'

Research information

The work is reproduced in the 'Constantin PiliuÈÄ' album, Alexandru Cebuc, Arc 2000 Publishing House, Bucharest, 2002.

Constantin Piliuță demonstrates his lyrical and reflexive character by creating an image repertory in the form of extensively elaborated meditative paintings. His painting is discreet and elevated, and his drawing appears to us as simple and well-balanced. He is not concerned with the imitation of nature, nor does he idealise the vivacious chromaticism used by his predecessors when constructing still life. He notably puts at stake the decorative and affective synthesising of the floral portraits he depicts. He explores the explosive potential of vegetation, making it subject to his preference for balance and harmony as well. Piliuță's flowers establish both nature's statuary beauty, as well as the author's sensitivity. The artist elaborates an enlightened crescendo through the careful interaction between the dark brush strokes and the eloquent white articulating his creation. He embroiders colours and synthesizes impressions, he applies the paint intuitively, accomplishing a notable juxtaposition between the affective and the intellectual. The artist sticks to an elementary, rather suggested botany, so that the flowers in the present work appear as broad patches of colour. Piliuță virtuously succeeds in suggesting a new organisation of the pictorial space, as well as in paying special attention to the translucent colour embracing a fair share of his art. Flowers are seen as a refuge in the ineffable and at the same time manage to enliven and animate the world in which they grow. The motif is again reduced to the essential; and the stakes now fall on the power of suggestion that the artist undoubtedly possesses. The unmistakable effects of white that he includes, particularly in the colouring of the petals or flowers as a whole, are joined by expressive accents punctuated in the form of coloured highlights. The present work shows Piliuță's preference for blue, which he declines in shades of blue or grey. Here, too, he uses accents of white, successively moving from a pure white to a white marked by the intersection with the other colours proposed by the artist. The background is interconnected with the central element of the work through a chromatic interweaving established in the body of the flower vase. The colour seems to flow from one plane to another and thus manages to harmonise the whole composition. The few reddish accents complete the unusual illustration of the petals, which no longer represent an actual mimesis of nature, but a personal reinterpretation of the artist's own encryption of metaphors.

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