L'Interstice de la vie 2003

Curator: Nicolae Maniu’s 2003 oil painting, "L'Interstice de la vie," presents a complex and compelling scene. What's your initial take on this piece? Editor: It's overwhelming, a real cornucopia. There’s so much staged luxury, so many layers. You get a strong sense of abundance… and of something just slightly off. Curator: Indeed, the abundance points to the vanity traditions in Baroque painting. Think of the laden tables and draped figures, almost theatrical. But Maniu adds levels. For example, look at how the woman looking up to the artist parallels and complicates classic allusions to muse figures. Editor: You can almost feel the artist's labor in this piece—it feels almost archaeological, but there’s an element of playful consumption happening here, a strange assembly of objects seemingly chosen for their symbolic or economic value. Curator: Precisely, these choices resonate on different cultural levels. We see both baroque chiaroscuro lighting, full of shadow and implied spirituality, right beside almost hyper-real renderings of food and classical costumery. Look closely at the medals or ribbons—are they signifiers of social station or something else? What about that can of shaving cream, among those grapes? Editor: That’s an unexpected juxtaposition! It points to process itself. High and low colliding here. I am interested in this clash; Maniu clearly wants to foreground the making and, therefore, the meaning as created rather than discovered. Curator: Yes! I also find the recurrence of faces striking – from the sketch behind the couple to the framed portrait miniatures in the still life above, there is a lot about the performance of identity to absorb. This might be less about fixed social identities, and more about what it means to stage oneself, as one might construct a painting. Editor: It is true; the artist draws our attention not only to what is represented but to the very means and conditions of that representation. Fascinating. Curator: Agreed. It's a work demanding careful attention and layered readings of visual history. Editor: Yes, I will be mulling over the material weight of this work for quite a while. The density, and the deliberate act of staging…