Une flamme s'allume 1961

Curator: Alexandre Istrati’s 1961 piece, "Une flamme s'allume," or "A Flame Ignites," created with oil paint using the matter painting technique, awaits us. What leaps out at you? Editor: A glorious explosion! It's dense, chaotic—a bit overwhelming, to be honest. Feels almost like a battlefield, albeit a strangely colorful one. Curator: I get that "overwhelming" sensation, especially up close. The density of the paint, that almost brutal layering... it’s intensely physical, like you could lose a finger in it. But beyond the battlefield you describe, I see raw, unbridled energy struggling to coalesce. Editor: Yes, there is an energy there that cannot be ignored, or categorized too soon. Semiotically, I'm drawn to how the structural arrangement avoids any clear hierarchy. Patches of blues, yellows, reds intermingle across the plane, none dominating—is that a statement of egalitarianism? Curator: Maybe. Istrati, a Romanian-French artist deeply involved with European abstraction, wasn’t one for rigid structures in life or art. He saw color as emotion, and brushstrokes as little existential outbursts, he aimed at that pure expression, beyond subject. Maybe these interwoven colors are about interconnectedness, about the beautiful messiness of life igniting. Editor: Or perhaps, reflecting the moment. 1961. Tensions of the Cold War, abstract expressionism reaching its zenith… There's an anxiety present. The flame may ignite, but the painting leaves us hanging, unsure if it's signaling warmth or an oncoming inferno. Curator: True! That tension is precisely what keeps drawing me back. Istrati offers no easy answers, which resonates deeply. It is all a dance of hues and gestures suggesting hope, anxiety and that flickering unknown just ahead. It invites us to engage in a conversation rather than accept a dogma. Editor: Precisely, and like any worthwhile dialogue, the conversation shifts the more one spends immersed within its depths. Thank you for sharing!