39. New Blocks (Toledo) [1963]

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39. New Blocks (Toledo) [1963]

Corneliu Baba

1906, Craiova - 1997, Bucureşti

Estimate:

EUR 15.000 - 25.000

Sold

EUR 28.000

References

MUSCALU ALBANI, Maria, "Corneliu Baba", Publishing House of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Bucharest, 2008. ȘUȘARĂ, Pavel, "Corneliu Baba", Monitorul Oficial Publishing House, Bucharest, 2013.

oil on canvas, 65 x 65 cm, 65 Ã 65 cm, signed, dated and noted bottom right, with black, "Baba, (19)63, T"

Research information

The artwork was part of the exhibition "Landscape in Romanian paintings", Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest, 2002.

PROVENANCE

Victoria and Vasile Parizescu collection; private collection, Bucharest

A thinker of the brush and masterful in its simplicity and coherence, Baba's work will be circumscribed by vision and conception to the methodological principles of a realistic classicism. From the very beginning, the artist will resort to these means, defined by the expressive clarity of the drawing and by chiaroscuro effects. In addition to portrait and genre paintings, which will fill the majority of his work, his repertoire will sporadically include twilight episodes such as "Venice", "Assisi" or "Toledo", in which the artist will show his interest in the cityscape. Even if the landscape genre would not occupy a prominent position, his painting would acquire qualities such as the sculptural treatment of colours, the monumentality of the composition and detachment from the primary image. By moving away from the concrete representation of things, the expressive power of subjects and the density of colours will replace the actual form of the landscape. The tones become dense and monochrome, acquiring intensity, depicting an essentialized, idealized, stronger and more dramatic reality. The eponymous buildings, treated with a severity of construction, the laconic but precise distribution of lines, the linear perspective and the chromatics will give the cityscape architectural, symbolic and metaphysical dimensions. (G.M.)

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