The Bird Tamer 2010

Editor: This is "The Bird Tamer," an acrylic on canvas by Romul Nutiu, painted in 2010. I am immediately struck by its chaotic energy, a flurry of colors and frantic brushstrokes that seem barely contained. What's your perspective on how the artist has handled the material aspect? Curator: Look closely at the layering of acrylic. Each stroke, seemingly spontaneous, builds a dense surface. Consider the labor: the repetitive gesture, the physical engagement with the canvas. Is this a skilled craft, elevated, or something else entirely? What does that mean for its status? Editor: It's interesting to think about the 'skill' versus the expression. The frantic strokes suggest immediacy, almost as if the act of painting itself is more important than any specific representation. Does that then tie into notions of art and labor, of perceived skill? Curator: Precisely. This gestures towards a breakdown of the traditional hierarchy where technical skill and figurative representation defined artistic value. Instead, we have raw materiality, a visible process. How do we then value it? What does this say about art in an age of mass production and consumption? Look, for instance, at the visible texture – is this deliberate mark making, a critique of industrialised finish perhaps? Editor: It feels like it's deliberately resisting a slick, polished surface. It demands we acknowledge its making. Curator: Exactly. This insistence on materiality forces us to reconsider what we consider ‘art’, what we consider valuable, and how labour informs its context and potentially impacts the status and consumption of the final artwork. Editor: I never really thought of the consumption aspect. Curator: Yes, now does it impact or inform the piece, when the mode of making is at the heart of the creation, inviting further reflections from you and audiences in how art continues to evolve within cultures? Editor: That is something to think about, looking at not just the finished image, but all the artistic and working production practices. Thanks!