91. Corn Field

1910, Craiova - 1962, Bucureşti

Estimate

EUR 40.000 - 60.000

Sold

EUR 57.500

Session

Tue, 25 October 2022 19:00

Taking the ancient folklore and the stylistics of Romanian folk art as his reference points, Ion Țuculescu becomes, from the 1930s onwards, a participant in the great movements of universal plastic creation. In addition to the primitive, which attracts him from the very beginning, the artist would pay great attention to the real, capturing it in his immediate visual space, the ulterior space being occupied by popular ethos, which would help him create a new reality, directed towards a confessed cosmic mystery. The first creative stage would be dedicated to the Romanian folk art, which would lure him with the proposed modernity, with the specific techniques of geometrization and with the colouring of an impressive decorativeness and vitality. The second creative period would be dedicated to the narrative-pictorial period, when elements such as butterflies, dolls, totems and triangles appear, as well as other folkloric objects such as leaves, flowers, birds and jugs. The last creative period, dedicated to signs and symbols, would be strongly remarked from the 1960s onwards. This last period, considered the most effervescent from a creative point of view, would be characterized by an abstracted manner, a strong colouring, as well as an increasingly vital rhythm of forms and contours. In addition to portraits, still life and countryside interiors, a special place in his work is occupied by landscapes. A distinctive aspect of this genre would be the one of chromatic dominants, simplified in structure into primary and secondary tones, the tumult of his palette dissolving the patterns of ordinary Realism and Post-Impressionistic experiments. Prominent in his work since the 1930s, the landscape would intensify its appearance over time, taking on various guises. Elaborated around an intimate ethic, with elements taken from the surrounding reality, the landscape depicted by Țuculescu will render restricted imagistic registers, populated with fragments of nature, animals, houses and figures, together with a spiritual chromatic - an ambience which invites the viewer to a fantastic reading. (G.M.)

References

VLASIU, Ion, "Ion Țuculescu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1966. COMARNESCU, Petru, "Țuculescu", Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1974. CÂRNECI, Magda, "Ion Țuculescu", Meridiane Publishing House, Sibiu, 1984. Catalogue of the retrospective exhibition "Ion Țuculescu", The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, 1999.

Dimensions

width 50 cm, height 60 cm, custom 60 × 50 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed bottom right, with black, "I. Țuculescu"

Research information

The artwork participated in the exhibition "Rumanian Art of the 20th Century", Royal College of Art, London, at cat. 12, under the title "Câmp de porumb" ("Corn Field").

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