The Street II 2010

Romul Nutiu made this painting, called 'The Street II', with paint, of course, and I imagine, a brush, and a whole lotta feeling. The ochre ground feels sunny, like a hot day, or maybe a sickly one? And then these figures appear, dark and frantic! Look at all the drips and splatters, the thin black lines like spiderwebs tying it all together. I bet Nutiu was really going for it here, pushing and pulling the paint, maybe even attacking the canvas. It makes me wonder, what kind of street is this? A place of joy, or chaos, or both at once? Maybe Nutiu was thinking about folks like Dubuffet, finding beauty in the raw, the ugly, the everyday. He must have known something about how the soul can be found in a gesture. Painting is a weird alchemy, right? Turning feelings into marks, and those marks back into feelings.