195. Still Life with Pots [1941]

In Iosif Iser's artistic record, the Eastern world was a new-found paradise to which he would often return. Unlike his predecessors, the artist lent a darker and much more dramatic vision to his creations. In his paintings, he had the same precision as in his graphic work and he chose vivid, exuberant colours. In the present work, the artist restricts his chromatic palette to just a few shades, modelled alternately. The chromatic is inspired from the East; the subjects are architecturally ordered and the synthetic lines summarise the shapes exactly. Although insignificant in the economy of his entire work, still life brings a new spirit, strongly marked by oriental influences, which the artist takes up both in the shaping of forms and in his chromatic choices. The laborious work he puts into organizing his compositions translates into prominent rhythms and harmonious lines. An excellent drawer, Iosif Iser synthesizes in the quiet flow of lines the whole story of the illustrated objects. The ubiquitous coffee cups in the works dedicated to odalisques with coloured shawls and transparent veils are now placed at the centre of a composition in which the painter borrows elements from his immediate surroundings. We're intrigued here by the preference for a much cooler colour scheme, with low tones that blend into the dark background at times. This time, too, there are the crumpled towel, the jugs typical of the southern atmosphere, but also the ceramic vase in which flowers no longer appear, as we are used to in the still lifes of other artists. The specificity of the present work is constituted by a conglomerate of elements devoid of life, which however intrigue the artist by their volumes and chromaticism, but also by problems of representation of shadows or light.

References

MIHALACHE, Marin, 'Iser', Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1982. The catalogue of the exhibition 'Călătoriile lui Iser' ('Iser's Travels'), Alina Petrescu, Publishing House of the National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, 2021.

Dimensions

width 46.5 cm, height 32.5 cm, custom 32,5 × 46,5 cm

Description

oil on cardboard, signed bottom left, in black, 'Iser'; dated bottom right, in green, '(19)41'

Dating

1941

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