Illumination 2010

Curator: Romul Nutiu's "Illumination" from 2010. It’s an acrylic on canvas work. My initial response is just how...bright...it feels, despite those shadowy areas. Editor: Yes, that overarching sense of light dominates, doesn't it? The composition strikes me as intentionally disruptive. That intense yellow...it feels like the sun exploding, but contained. Curator: Contained, yes, I think so. It's expressionist, teetering towards abstract expressionism in its use of pure colour and gestural marks, which serves as the signifier. Editor: Exactly, there’s a controlled chaos to the brushstrokes. It feels almost like Fauvism at play with that boldness. But tell me, do you see a landscape hinted at here? I see almost a horizon line. Curator: I agree on that point. Observe the bold, blue horizontal slash—its placement suggests a landscape receding into the distance. Notice how the chromatic intensity in the foreground shifts. Editor: Ah, the "slash." A harsh, simple element in a complex scene. The colours sort of grind against each other, and I like it. Are there other landscape paintings in his oeuvre? I almost feel I should recognize him. Curator: Nutiu’s style incorporates elements of neo-expressionism. I can certainly find further biographical information for you. But observe now how light functions not only as a subject but also as a structural component. The darker hues push the foreground forward, emphasizing depth in tension with flatness. Editor: Okay, point taken! It’s fighting with itself – very alive. It has got me thinking, does the artist view “illumination” as a destructive or generative act here? Or both? I am drawn to how Nutiu balances abstraction and just a hint of form, it lets my imagination get away with itself. Curator: An excellent query. I would assert Nutiu utilizes formal contradictions. He compels us to reconsider binaries inherent within both abstraction and representation as categories themselves. Editor: It feels less of a statement, then, and more of a probing question...about the very nature of seeing, maybe? I could sit with this for ages. Curator: Indeed. "Illumination," for all its chromatic vigor, withholds easy answers, offering instead an experience predicated on sustained looking, which as we can gather, opens numerous interpretative portals.