166. Bucharest Landscape

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166. Bucharest Landscape

Alexandru Ciucurencu

1903, Ciucurova, Tulcea - 1977, Bucureşti

Estimate:

EUR 10.000 - 18.000

Not sold

References

Alexandru Ciucurencu exhibition catalogue, Dalles Hall, Bucharest, 1972. CEBUC, Alexandru, 'Ciucurencu', ARC 2000 Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004.

oil on canvas pasted on cardboard, 55 x 68 cm, 55 Ã 68 cm, signed bottom right, in black, in monogram, 'AC'

Claiming the title of colourist in the history of local art, Alexandru Ciucurencu will pay special attention to colour that goes beyond the prerogatives stipulated by the object, defining its own value without referring to the contour in which it resides. In his last period of creation, however, the chromatic palette narrows down and is circumscribed to a few essential tones to which the artist adds, as we are used to, the necessary contrasts. In Bucharest, Alexandru Ciucurencu will live successively on Strada Clujului, on Strada Aviator Iliescu, and will finally move to a space made available to him by the state, following his acquisition of the distinction of artist of the people. From the studio he is setting up here, on Șoseaua Kiseleff, the master will have a direct view of the Arcul de Triumf. No wonder, then, that the impressive architectural construction would end up being pictorially transposed in his canvases. The landscape of the present work allows us to enter Ciucurencu's creative intimacy and to see Arcul de Triumf directly from his working space. Among the industrial landscapes (factories, refineries or plants), fragments of nature or compositions in which the foreground is dedicated to female characters, urban views also appear. Positioning himself on the borderline between modernity and classicism, the painter will elevate the urban material to the rank of art and create under the auspices of rigour and introspection. He will be noticed as a promising presence in the art world within the Salonul Oficial in 1932 by Nicolae Tonitza himself and will be compared by critics to Pallady or Luchian. Ciucurencu will not be an advocate of the absolutization of the role of colour or drawing, but will focus on the intersection of the two in a harmonious composition. In the present work, the black line, which briefly outlines the volumes, is reminiscent of Dufy's painting, and the whole construction of the space is translated into the declinations of grey borrowed from the frozen atmosphere of winter. The artist meticulously synthesizes colour and light, thus outlining a vast imaginary space in which he pours his ethos.

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