CHIȘINĂU, Moldova, July 8, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --
Event Dates: 8/12/2018 - 8/14/2018
Reception: 8/12/2018 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Location: Virtosu Art Gallery, Chisinau, RM
We are pleased to announce that with the ushering in of 2018, our gallery signed a new artist representation. We are now exhibiting Gheorghe Virtosu artworks at our showroom in Chisnau. The abstarct master is widely collected contemporary artist. The gallery features contemporary abstract paintings.
The gallery is having a reception event on Thursday evening, July 9th from 6:30 - 9:30 pm. Come take in the artwork, meet the artists, and enjoy the party!
About artist - Gheorghe Virtosu!
"A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world.", Hans Hofmann.
When talking about Abstract art, we usually think of something completely detached from the reality, chaotic and totally irrational. However, looking into the essence of this creative phenomenon, one can notice that, as a matter of fact, the very roots of Abstractionism are deeply connected with the surrounding existence. The material world starts tracing its images and patterns in our minds since the first moment we have opened our eyes. Composition, harmony, proportions, light, color, line, texture, mass, movement – all these are the elements of the 'visual dictionary,' composed by our physical sensations. Thus, the interaction with art objects is largely based on the ability to recognize the infinite manifestations of the material world in this or that image, even in the most abstract one. Abstract art doesn't deny Life but transforms it into the 'artistic reality,' which is no less true and haptic then the reality itself.
Being a self-taught artist, Gheorghe Virtosu still managed to grasp that subtle notion and embody it in his paintings. At first glance, his works are purely abstract. The compositions consist mostly of the fluid forms intertwining with each other and floating over the painting surface. However, our mind immediately recognizes biomorphic shapes in them. This approach reminds of the abstractions by such great masters as Wassily Kandinsky (founder of the lyrical Abstract painting) and Joan Miró (one of the prominent representatives of Surrealism). Both of the artists were inspired by the interest in natural sciences, especially in embryology, zoology and microscope observations. Biomorphism allowed them to mute the rational side of our psyche, which often overshadows the pure voice of the animated matter. Unlike Kandinsky or Miró, Virtosu doesn't deny the rational side of art: each of his composition has a title, which immediately refers to some archetypes, stories or social concepts. Thus, the master accepts narration as an essential part of his abstract works. The titles create the bridge between his art and a viewer, giving the key to the interpretation of the images. Paradoxically, Gheorghe doesn't oust but welcomes the reality into his paintings.
Reading the titles of his canvases, one can be surprised with the variety of the subjects, as they embrace everything, from religion (both Christian and Islamic – Adam and Eve, Zainab bint Muhammad) to the prominent figures of the modernity and past (Winston Churchill, Henry VIII of England), and highly topical or permanent themes (Pride parade, The source of life). However, all these subjects are united with the atmosphere of tension and desire to reveal certain conflict – the 'stress point,' as they call it in Physics. Having a biography full of dramatic and difficult situations, Gheorghe Virtosu doesn't try to reject and forget it – he courageously faces his inner challenges and sublimates the life experience into aesthetic form. As Stansilav Jerzy Lec once wrote, "You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories."
Such vigorous energy is skillfully depicted with the baroque-ish visual language of Virtosu's paintings. The artist conveys the sense of drama and action through the complex and vibrant painting texture, done with loose, gestural brushwork, and intensive palette with the predominant red, black and blue colors. The canvas becomes the substance the artist uses to 'sculpt' the image. The brush can touch the surface delicately, or attack it with a swiping gesture, leaving tangible furrow-like traces. In order to amplify the sense of contradiction, he captures those bold, improvisational brushstrokes within the clear, well-thought outlines of geometric drawing. The latter resembles stained glass, adding the somewhat decorative flavor to the master's works.
Gheorghe Virtosu's pieces prove the connection between Objective and Abstract. Leonardo da Vinci noted that, if our vision can grasp landscapes and faces in the accident blots, the same way it can 'deconstruct,' eliminate the integrity of an object's image. And that purified natural form becomes the basic artistic material for the painter. Nevertheless, Gheorghe Virtosu doesn't copy the natural forms but rather follows their dynamics and movement: sudden twists of the line, compositional pauses, coloristic bursts are consonant with the natural processes of birth, growth and decay. The artist blurs the borders between 'narrative' and 'non-narrative art,' asking us "What is the reality, if not one of the most abstract things in the world?"
by
Oleksandra Osadcha - art critic
Alina Livneva - PR manager
SOURCE Virtosu Art Gallery
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