May Day in Freedom 1958

Alexandru Ciucurencu made this painting, May Day in Freedom, with quick strokes of oil paint in shades of red, white, blue, and brown. I imagine the artwork came into being as a shifting, emerging thing, through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Ciucurencu, and I think what it might have been like to create this image. What he might have been thinking when he made it? The paint looks kind of thin and washy, which gives everything a feeling of immediacy. The red flags pop right out at you, don't they? And there's this one gesture in the lower right, a woman's arm raised high, that just sings with energy. You know, the way Ciucurencu uses color reminds me a bit of the Fauves, but there's also something about the subject matter that feels very specific to his time and place. It’s like he's in conversation with a whole history of painting. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.