Mouvement 1989

Aurel Cojan made this piece, ‘Mouvement’, using a variety of marks that give the sense of something scribbled, or perhaps a collection of doodles. There are layers of marks laid over one another, giving the whole image a sense of history and movement. The colour palette is very muted, mostly creams, yellows and browns, except for a stroke of black in the upper centre which anchors the entire composition. Look closely at this area, and you can see how Cojan has built up this one thick, vertical mark from a build up of smaller, thinner lines. It's this kind of layering that gives the painting its depth. This method of layering is like Cy Twombly's work, building up surfaces through scratching and freehand gestures, without a desire to give the work a clean finish. It's refreshing; almost like the painting is inviting you to come up and add a few layers yourself. It's always good to be reminded that art is an ongoing conversation.