67. The Council of the Wise Men

Mircea Ciobanu, although he spent only 40 years among the mortals, remains for posterity a man of genius whose works exceed the limitations imposed by time and space. He was noted as an outstanding painter, writer, sculptor, and philosopher. The work of his efforts has left paintings through which reverberates intensely the flame of his own spiritual experiences and emotions in the maelstrom of the troubled destiny he had to face and see through. A graduate of the "Nicolae Grigorescu" Institute of Fine Arts in the class of master Corneliu Baba, Mircea Ciobanu stood out due to his overwhelming talent that propelled him to an explosive artistic debut. Beloved and appreciated in his country of origin, he was considered an exceptional artist, becoming a member of the Fine Artists’ Union in 1976. In Bucharest, his works were exhibited in prestigious cultural spaces such as the Romanian Athenaeum in 1975. In 1977, the artist had a painting exhibition in Paris at the "Ernest Rupin" Museum. In 1980, the artist's paintings were exhibited at the "Baron Rene Steens" Gallery in Brussels. In 1981, Mircea Ciobanu moved to Switzerland where he continued his artistic career. The painter is the one who makes the frescoes and stained glasses of the Saint-Sulpice Cathedral near Lausanne. The works of the painter Ciobanu have a deep spiritual load; it shows both through the subject and the impeccable technique. As Pietro Maria Bardi (Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paolo) exclaimed in 1984 at the Mircea Ciobanu exhibition in Brazil: "In my 38 years of career I have not met another artist with the same technical control." Through his technique and style, Ciobanu brought the Renaissance straight to contemporary times, wherever and whenever it was, turning technical rigors to the advantage of his own creation, making them work in the interest of his own creative ego expressed lavishly in his compositions. Through combinations of lights and shadows, both in rendering and in the subject, Ciobanu's paintings emanate dramatic tension from a pure, ardent energy that equally fascinates and overwhelms. Chiaroscuro and the antithetic are the tools by which the painter manages to show his own vision, and they become the hallmarks of his art. In the Council of the Wise Men, extremes are dominant and are harmonised by the painter through techniques such as the chiaroscuro, but also through the spectrum of colours that emanate an ardent feeling of human passion, but also of the supernatural and the otherworldly. Ciobanu's work is of an overwhelming theatricality that challenges and attracts the viewer into a world between heaven and hell, between light and darkness, between the top and the bottom. Contemporary and Baroque, classical and romantic, mystical and theatrical, the Council of the Wise Men is a complex work through which Mircea Ciobanu convinces us that he did not manifest only as a top-class artist, but also as a lucid visionary with philosophical profoundness. In the composition there are depicted seven characters gathered in a circle around a single one - predominant and absolute, a magnetic presence that seems to be followed, protected and docilely revered by those present. The idea of ​​this hierarchy is apparent from the dynamic of the characters as well as from the colouring. The spiralling dynamic of the characters suggests human evolution on a hierarchical scale, but also the interdependence between them. Some characters give the illusion of humility, others have the role to openly render the demonic - like the horned character placed on the right-back side, in relation to the central character in red. The warm tones and the golden hues enveloping the work give it its spiritual and mystical aura. The colouring comes to support the story and the teachings conveyed by the creator – both an artist and a philosopher. The intense red of the central character's vestments suggests the idea of ​​dominating energy and power. This is also the most illuminated of the characters, on a higher position than the other characters. His index finger is pointing up, in contrast to the downward pointing finger of the horned character, placed just behind him. The other characters, rendered in a more diffuse light and in duller shades of brown, by being placed in a circle, come to support and confirm the message conveyed tacitly, through the image, by the central characters. Indeed, through the light that envelops them, but also through the elongated, filiform, and gothic rendering of their faces, the characters seem closer to floating, ephemeral presences, to mirages, projections and esoteric appearances than to the tangible, tactile and telluric concrete. The theatrical drama is rendered both by light and colour, as well as through the subject and the representation of the characters in the composition. The scene painted by the artist gives the impression of a parable, like the true Bible lessons rendered in the frescoes painted in churches. The characters are shown with an eternal, generic presence, by their ritual coagulation, giving the feeling of static and stiff ones, but also of dynamism. They identify each other using their eyes and they also lose some of their private identity - acquiring a generic one - by gazing at an imaginary audience: the viewer himself. (I.G.)

Dimenzije

width 95 cm, height 110 cm

Opis

oil on canvas, signed upper right "CIOBANU", in ochre

Lot.material_carats

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