Relief (Flour) 1990

Constantin Flondor made this painting, Relief (Flour), with oil paint. He’s used a pared-down palette of greys and whites, almost like he’s working with the raw materials of painting itself. I get the sense that Flondor is interested in the process of painting, in the materiality of paint as a substance. You can see this in the thick, textured surface of the painting. The white paint is built up in layers, creating a relief effect that makes you want to reach out and touch it. I like the contrast between this and the dark grey background, it’s almost like a storm cloud. The single mark in the upper left corner seems to act as the title for the work. It is scrawled there in white pigment as if it were an errant thought. Flondor's approach reminds me a bit of Antoni Tàpies, who also explored the materiality of painting in his work. Like Tàpies, Flondor embraces ambiguity and invites us to find our own meaning in the work.