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311011: Galerie Gerersdorfer Robert Muntean – All that could have been
Galerie Gerersdorfer
Robert Muntean – All that could have been
22.10.11 – 12.11.11
People who look good in paintings
Francis Bacon had a particular affinity to alcohol - his chaotic studio was covered in dust and dirt and he painted people, whose faces and bodies were composed of dizzying and brittle streaks, thereby creating sad and deformed pictures.
Robert Muntean’s small-format portrait of Francis Bacon (30x40, oil, 2011) shows Bacon’s glance as being either blasé and curious, or sad and amused. Muntean paints the reflection of light on Bacon’s face with a harsh yellow tone, the shadows consist of apparently random pink-black brushstrokes and a light dusky-pink splash – the shadow on the yellow splash hides nothing and presents his right eyebrow exactly where it is supposed to be. This is the smallest of the nearly 20 works shown in the exhibition that was sold out before it opened. Numerous paintings of people are shown combined with a picture of a fox or a horse, primarily in earth-coloured warm tones. The pictures of people depict individuals and groups: three men in a clearing talking to each other (All that could have been, 150x140, oil, 2011), two men looking down into a canyon with a reddish-white spot (“The great below”, 150x140, oil, 2011), a man placing his hand on another’s’ shoulder (Trask”, 110x105, oil, 2011). The figures only consist of a few lines and structures of light. The fore- and backgrounds are separated. The spontaneous background contrasts with the immersion and concentration of the figures among one another. It is less as if there was something dangerous looming beneath what is visible, but more that what is visible emerges with dreamlike-energy from what is beneath.
Muntean invests a lot of time in his individual brushstrokes thus allowing the painting to emerge and thereby perfectly balancing the composition of the group pictures. The scenes don’t appear dramatic or odd or historic, bur rather familiar and incidental. The bucolic procedure of the works pleasantly reminds of Siegfried Anzinger. Robert Muntean’s pictures of people, compared to those by other artists, has the encouraging forward-looking characteristic that one would trust most people in Muntean’s paintings to have something in common and something profoundly peaceful: when viewing the paintings, one could wish to be part of this atmosphere.
By Gesche Heumann
Galerie Gerersdorfer
1090 Vienna, Währinger Strasse 12
Tel: +43 (0) 1 310 84 84
Fax: +43 (0) 1 310 84 85
email: office@gerersdorfer.at
http://www.kunstnet.at/gerersdorfer
Opening hours: Thu, Fri, Sat 11 - 20 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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311011
Galerie Gerersdorfer
1090 Wien, Währinger Strasse 12
Tel: +43 1 310 84 84, Fax: +43 1 310 84 85
Email: office@gerersdorfer.at
http://www.kunstnet.at/gerersdorfer
Öffnungszeiten: Do, Fr, Sa 11-20
Galerie Gerersdorfer
1090 Wien, Währinger Strasse 12
Tel: +43 1 310 84 84, Fax: +43 1 310 84 85
Email: office@gerersdorfer.at
http://www.kunstnet.at/gerersdorfer
Öffnungszeiten: Do, Fr, Sa 11-20
