Cișmigiu 1940

Curator: This is Samuel Mutzner’s "Cișmigiu," painted in 1940. A beautiful oil painting, seemingly completed en plein air, capturing a scene in the eponymous Bucharest park. Editor: My first thought is that the texture! The impasto application makes it feel almost tangible, as though I could reach out and touch the bark of those towering trees. Curator: The application of oil paint is definitely central to understanding this work, as is the perspective. The large trees in the immediate foreground frame the distant figures and sunlight, structuring our field of vision quite deliberately. I believe the composition is bisected by the light to great effect, further focusing our gaze towards that single light source. Editor: Agreed. I'm interested in what that materiality communicates about leisure in a time of growing conflict. Those generous slabs of paint, conjuring the physical reality of park life, almost stand in defiance of resource scarcity of those times, perhaps a desire to hold on to more peaceful pastimes. Curator: It is compelling how you interpret it as a possible tension of holding on to better times, as I felt it could speak to the cyclical nature of things, how the park and its leisure continue regardless of larger social conditions. Also, the interesting addition of what seems to be a small telephone booth. What semiotic possibilities! Editor: True. Considering it was likely made in the open air adds another layer; imagine the very act of the artist, working with these materials amidst a world changing so drastically. That almost frantic, heavily applied brushstroke is indicative of the urgency of that historical and material context, an energy that charges the image itself. Curator: So while the materiality might indicate that specific period, one can extract universal notions of resistance, the continuation of pleasure, or how form dictates message. These readings exist independent of strict historical materialism. Editor: It seems to encapsulate an important moment. And maybe these details can point to all of these things: the structure and historical moments intertwining, giving this impressionistic scene so much density. Curator: Exactly. Thanks to that impasto application, what at first glance seems like a quick sketch holds complex, layered meanings when one closely engages with its form and materiality.