Cornel Brudascu
15 Sep - 28 Oct 2017
CORNEL BRUDASCU
15 September – 28 October 2017
Galeria Plan B is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Cornel Brudascu, to open on Friday, the 15th of September 2017, on the occasion of Berlin Art Week.
Developed around paintings and drawings from the past 15 years, the exhibition reconsiders a selection of recent works from an extensive oeuvre spanning a period of time from the 1960s until today. Selected from a complex practice, at times marked by historical moments the artist experienced, the works exhibited – nude male figures, portraits – share an autonomy for the social circumstances in which they were created and are connected by an intimate, meditative mood. In this regard, notebook drawings are a silent witness for the artist's interests and function as a medium of ultimate sincerity – a space for attempts, for “failure“, which painting cannot afford.
A photo-realist painting from an acclaimed stage in Brudascu's work – based on its recent discovery and association with the global Pop Art movement after having been included in the The World Goes Pop exhibition at Tate Modern in 2015 – acts as an introduction to the exhibition. This painting from 1970 represents the portrait of Ion Munteanu – a friend from university that committed suicide. A warm, hypnotic portrait of the peer frozen in a timeless potential can define the whole generation of Brudascu, suggesting a dramatic dimension of their destiny as artists in 1970s and 80s Romania.
The male figure in the instances of the dancer and the erotic body is a recurrent theme in the exhibition. Brudascu has a profound admiration for the ballet of Sergei Diaghilev expressing the human drama and the essence of modernity. The dancer's body is presented in its full beauty, exuding eroticism. The erotic body is represented in paintings of the male figure posing for the artist in expressions that ellude the academic formula of the model, and diverge in the realm of sensibility seen from the perspective of sexuality in various nuances: the human and animal body, sleep, wakefulness, the body's physicality or the colour of the nude emphasizing its sensitivity. In the case of Brudascu, the more vague the body is depicted, the more expressive it becomes.`
As in an existential analysis, both types of body reflect on the tragic side of the human figure, in a fertile opposition to the loose, painterly use of colour. Talent seeps from all these works, bordering the frivolous in a necessary balance. In addition to this, the artist consistently employs an alteration by mending the apparent formalism: Brudascu has learned to repeat “mistakes“ from a painting, in an attempt to challenge the academic rigour.
The international art scene has acknowledged Brudascu through exhibitions such as the Gwangju Biennale in 2014 and The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern in 2015. He has been written about as local master, head of school and figure in the shadow of the success gained by the School of Cluj. Beyond these circumstantial labels and current tendencies, one of the goals of this exhibition is to show the core of Brudascu's art, celebrating a consistent and tireless parcours of this artist now in his 80s.
Cornel Brudascu (b. 1937) lives and works in Cluj. Selected exhibitions include: Life – A User's Manual, ArtEncounters Biennale 2nd edition, Timisoara (2017); Parfum 79, VNH Gallery, Paris (2017); The World Goes Pop, Tate Modern, London (2015); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014); Salonul de vara, Plan B, Cluj (2012); East of Eden - Photorealism: Versions of Reality, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (2011); Romanian Cultural Resolution, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig (2010); The Museum of Painting, The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest (2005).
Selected public collections: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Special thanks to the artist Victor Man for his essential guidance and contribution to this exhibition.
We are also grateful to the private collectors and individuals, who have generously lent works for this exhibition: Alin Bozbiciu, Daniel Ghiurutan, Mircea Pinte.
To coincide with the opening of the exhibition and Berlin Art Week, Plan B is hosting PUNCH - a Bucharest based platform focused on circulating contemporary practices and theory in art and related fields in a printed form. PUNCH operates as a (mostly) online bookshop as well as publisher, and at Plan B it will present an exhibition-cum-bookshop focused on the recent revival of artist publications and editions in the Romanian art context.
15 September – 28 October 2017
Galeria Plan B is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Cornel Brudascu, to open on Friday, the 15th of September 2017, on the occasion of Berlin Art Week.
Developed around paintings and drawings from the past 15 years, the exhibition reconsiders a selection of recent works from an extensive oeuvre spanning a period of time from the 1960s until today. Selected from a complex practice, at times marked by historical moments the artist experienced, the works exhibited – nude male figures, portraits – share an autonomy for the social circumstances in which they were created and are connected by an intimate, meditative mood. In this regard, notebook drawings are a silent witness for the artist's interests and function as a medium of ultimate sincerity – a space for attempts, for “failure“, which painting cannot afford.
A photo-realist painting from an acclaimed stage in Brudascu's work – based on its recent discovery and association with the global Pop Art movement after having been included in the The World Goes Pop exhibition at Tate Modern in 2015 – acts as an introduction to the exhibition. This painting from 1970 represents the portrait of Ion Munteanu – a friend from university that committed suicide. A warm, hypnotic portrait of the peer frozen in a timeless potential can define the whole generation of Brudascu, suggesting a dramatic dimension of their destiny as artists in 1970s and 80s Romania.
The male figure in the instances of the dancer and the erotic body is a recurrent theme in the exhibition. Brudascu has a profound admiration for the ballet of Sergei Diaghilev expressing the human drama and the essence of modernity. The dancer's body is presented in its full beauty, exuding eroticism. The erotic body is represented in paintings of the male figure posing for the artist in expressions that ellude the academic formula of the model, and diverge in the realm of sensibility seen from the perspective of sexuality in various nuances: the human and animal body, sleep, wakefulness, the body's physicality or the colour of the nude emphasizing its sensitivity. In the case of Brudascu, the more vague the body is depicted, the more expressive it becomes.`
As in an existential analysis, both types of body reflect on the tragic side of the human figure, in a fertile opposition to the loose, painterly use of colour. Talent seeps from all these works, bordering the frivolous in a necessary balance. In addition to this, the artist consistently employs an alteration by mending the apparent formalism: Brudascu has learned to repeat “mistakes“ from a painting, in an attempt to challenge the academic rigour.
The international art scene has acknowledged Brudascu through exhibitions such as the Gwangju Biennale in 2014 and The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern in 2015. He has been written about as local master, head of school and figure in the shadow of the success gained by the School of Cluj. Beyond these circumstantial labels and current tendencies, one of the goals of this exhibition is to show the core of Brudascu's art, celebrating a consistent and tireless parcours of this artist now in his 80s.
Cornel Brudascu (b. 1937) lives and works in Cluj. Selected exhibitions include: Life – A User's Manual, ArtEncounters Biennale 2nd edition, Timisoara (2017); Parfum 79, VNH Gallery, Paris (2017); The World Goes Pop, Tate Modern, London (2015); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014); Salonul de vara, Plan B, Cluj (2012); East of Eden - Photorealism: Versions of Reality, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (2011); Romanian Cultural Resolution, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig (2010); The Museum of Painting, The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest (2005).
Selected public collections: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Special thanks to the artist Victor Man for his essential guidance and contribution to this exhibition.
We are also grateful to the private collectors and individuals, who have generously lent works for this exhibition: Alin Bozbiciu, Daniel Ghiurutan, Mircea Pinte.
To coincide with the opening of the exhibition and Berlin Art Week, Plan B is hosting PUNCH - a Bucharest based platform focused on circulating contemporary practices and theory in art and related fields in a printed form. PUNCH operates as a (mostly) online bookshop as well as publisher, and at Plan B it will present an exhibition-cum-bookshop focused on the recent revival of artist publications and editions in the Romanian art context.