Autumn Landscape 1940

Alexandru Ciucurencu created this “Autumn Landscape” with oil on cardboard in Romania, around 1940. The post-impressionistic painting focuses on the artist’s emotional response to the landscape. Ciucurencu abandoned the artistic conventions of depicting the natural world, instead making use of vibrant colors and expressive brushstrokes. As a painter who spent his formative years in interwar Romania, Ciucurencu was educated in the Fine Arts Academy in Bucharest and he was deeply influenced by French modernism. His style moved from academic realism to a more avant-garde approach and his work often features bold colors that capture light and shadow. To understand Ciucurencu’s work, it’s important to consider the cultural context in which he was working. Romania in the 1940s was a society undergoing rapid change, with growing tensions between urban and rural life, and Western and Eastern influences. Further research using Romanian cultural archives will offer more insight into the artist's inspiration.