Red Totem (from the Memory Pyramid series) 2010

Romul Nutiu made this painting, "Red Totem," with generous strokes in shades of red, white, and blue. I can picture him layering the paint, maybe scraping it back in places to reveal earlier marks. It looks like a real wrestling match between colors and forms. I imagine Nutiu thinking about memory and history when he made this painting. It’s interesting how the totem shape emerges from the push and pull of abstraction. He’s not just depicting something; he's trying to get at some deeper, maybe unconscious, structure. The red feels primal and urgent, doesn't it? And that white area to the right—it almost feels like a ghostly presence. Gestures like these are part of a bigger conversation, stretching back to, say, the Abstract Expressionists, but going in its own direction. Each painter builds on what came before, always revising. Painting embraces ambiguity, resisting any single, fixed idea. It allows for all sorts of possibilities and interpretations, each one alive with its own energy.