A special gift offered by Fildas Art Foundation on the occasion of the 8th of March: a special evening spent in the company of an acknowledged and appreciated artist both in the country and abroad – Corneliu Vasilescu, whose works were first exhibited at the gallery.
Among the guests present in large number, there were personalities of fine arts and art critics: Dan Haulica – President of the Association of Art Critics, CD Zeletin – President of the Medical Writers Association, Paul Susara – art critic, Pop Negresteanu – artist, Viorel Margineanu – artist, Alma Redlingher – artist, Rodica-Xenia Constantin-President of the Romanian Association of Creative Women in Fine Art , Mrs. Anca Vlad (President of Fildas Art Foundation, permanent sponsor of the exhibitions hosted by Senso Art Gallery), opened the event addressing a few words to those present.
The exhibition called “Nirvana” (the last reality transcends towards which we must strive for, the reality of a perfect peace and detachment from all), the forms in the paintings of C. Vasilescu being on the way to Nirvana, which represents the peak of spiritual evolution of those who, through a severe programme, head towards the reality beyond the common sensory reality.
Prof. Dr. CD Zeletin noted the very interesting evolution of Corneliu Vasilescu, the transition from the figurative paintings that excel to the abstract painting of today, a road with shining stages which he now denies, but which have helped him express the beauty of the world and the depth of thought.
C. Vasilescu’s painting is an abstract one, a subtle painting, of the mind, in which sensitivity is sublime and requires an effort of understanding, initiation and meditation.
Pavel Susara characterized C. Vasilescu’s painting as a maximum of concreteness, as painting that reveals itself without any scenario, geometric, extremely rigorous, transcending the elementary geometry of the frame and of the canvas surface that he fills, it is an intrinsic geometry, assimilated to color.
The ability to balance the elements in a composition is actually the essential geometry of C. Vasilescu’s painting.
Now C. Vasilescu reached the phase called the shift to white, the zero grade of his painting, where less information means higher potential of expression. “The artist has reached a point where colored grays, the white in its numerous aspects are more important than the pure tones, than the rough touches, than the visceral energy he had before. It may be a sign of wisdom, a sign of melancholy, a sign of desperation in front of a moment when everything becomes white and a new beginning will have to be initiated”.
After the event the artist has kindly given us a short interview, in which he revealed a few details about his personal and artistic life.
What can you say about this exhibition hosted by SENSO Art Gallery? What do you want to bring new for your fans?
Mrs. Rodica – Xenia Constantin, painter and curator of this Gallery, asked me to come here, I saw the room, I liked it and I decided that all the works that I was going to expose to be particularly made for this exhibition. I went to several other similar events, hosted by SENSO Art Gallery, which impressed me. I really appreciated the exhibition of Ervant Nicogosian. His chromatic palette harmonized very well with the gallery walls. I a curator was for many years at the Office of exhibitions at the Ministry of Culture and I know very well this profession. I would like to add that I intend to itinerate this exhibition to Paris, on which occasion I wish to meet with friends artists in the Diaspora.
What message do you want to send through this series of works exhibited at Senso Art Gallery?
The maintaing of a constant physical sign. The physical constant should be preserved without rehearsal. The mood is volatile, very high, rather emotional. I worked having in mind a philosophical system that later I called Nirvana, inspired by this state of volatility, the waterline.
This exhibition is a relief. I have been working on it for 1 year. Most of the works are large. The paintings to be exhibited are minimal in expression, signs and colors, it is a chromatic Reduction.
I am also a man for whom color came to the fore, but this time I began to extract the pigment and I kept its results. I thought of this thing in order to give a special note to this exhibition.
To what genre do you have to pay tribute and what can you tell us about the student’s life? Was it a period of accumulation, define your style?
I am an abstract painter. I went to college after a 15 years delay, during which I tried all kinds of jobs … and yet, I think that those 6 years of college were a waste of time. All my colleagues left for America, I am the only one who’s stayed. Because I attended faculty 15 years later, I lost my generation. That was not a bad thing it was my chance.
Is there is any painting for which you worked harder than for others, which one has tormented you in any special way?
I worked hard for all my works. I struggled so that they look easy, and this is very difficult to achieve. I was inspired by every thing that was beautiful. Being an abstract painter, I had no concrete sources of inspiration. I have moments of leisure, of fantasizing and started to do some free watercolors. I like flowers very much. For me this is an active break.
Has your las Hife experience helped you in your artistic creation or not, was it a cause of suffering and struggle?
I was a lucky man. I come from a family of political prisoners. I spent some time in jail too, but this was luck in moments of crisis, accidents less pleasant help us in our evolution.
Where did you inherit your remarkable talent from or was it an “accident”? What can you tell us about your family?
I inherited the love and passion for painting from my mother and from my uncle, who was in Paris at Julien. Then he came back in the country as a teacher of decorative arts. I learned a lot from him. I come from Iasi, I was made by this city. I was a member of the Union before going to faculty. The fact that I painted from home helped me a lot and my colleagues saw that I worked with great ease, which was a bit suspicious.
Many artists felt the need, at some point, to help the formation of young people willing to assert in fine arts. Did you have any teaching activity?
I was a professor at the University of Fine Arts for a short time, but then I went to Tonitza High School where I established after the Revolution, the department of painting, which I led for a few years.
What do you think about the new generation of artists?
I think it’s best to try every form of manifestation of art. There are also more or less interesting. Whatever this is, it must be enveloped in an aura of mystery. If there is no mystery, it means I am oK..
