Portrait of the Academician G. Calinescu 1952

Alexandru Ciucurencu made this portrait of G. Calinescu with visible brushstrokes and a colour palette that feels very internal. Looking at this, I imagine Ciucurencu building up the image, stroke by stroke, almost like he’s constructing a memory. There's a lot of green and then these touches of red. The paint's not too thick, but you can see how each stroke sits next to the other, creating texture. You can sense him working the paint, pushing it around, trying to get it just right. The way he's captured the light on Calinescu's face with these short, deliberate strokes, it feels like he's trying to catch a fleeting thought, a moment of introspection. I think back to painters like Vuillard, or Bonnard, who were so intimate. Ciucurencu has that same feeling for his subject. Ultimately, it is the surface that delivers this feeling of intimacy. This portrait is an echo of an ongoing conversation between artists, each one adding their own voice to the mix.