Last month I had the chance of visiting the local museum of Mediaș, where there was a temporary art exhibition, that I will not forget easily. The style of the artist was one you can hardly see these days, unless it's about painters from the past centuries.
To my surprise the artist is a contemporary one, with a vast collection, that is not for sale. The artist's name is Alexandru Vlasin, who's a local in his mid 80's. The funny thing is, I asked the gallery lady if these works are for sale and she said the artist doesn't want to sell any of his works, but he said even if he would, these would be expensive. Yesterday I had a post about an artist of the same age, in the same situation. Looks like after a certain age, selling your work is not an option for them.
The First Snow
This painting showcases the village life when the first snow appears. It reminds me of a Romanian poem we learnt in school, called "Iarna pe uliţă" (Winter on The Street) by the famous Romanian poet, George Coşbuc. Looking at the painting, I was trying to figure out the year in which the scene could take place. Based on the architecture and clothes, I'd say at the beginning of the 20th century, or 19th? It's possible this painting was inspired by childhood memories.
Such a scene may not be famous or well liked as it takes you back to another century, but I loved it. Not long ago I had another post with the portraits of the artist here and I think it's safe to say, the variety of styles the artist covered is absolutely amazing. The portraits presented in my previous posts reminded me of Dutch artists from from the 17th, 18th century, so from that style to this one, it's quite a big jump, but I enjoyed both equally.
Crucifixion
This is the moment when you see the talent of the artist. Such a detailed artwork needs a good eye and time to understand. I'm lucky as I'm always taking photos and can analyze each one at home, zooming in and out as I please. I needed to zoom in on this to see the details and I can say it's truly impressive. Such an artwork needs quite an imagination.
The Days Of The Old Ladies
This was a mystery to me at the time of my visit as not knowing what the title of the painting means, I could only guess. Well, after doing my own research, now I see I would have never guessed what it means. It's inspired from Romanian folk mythology and I'm not familiar with that, but my research wasn't in vain, so here it is.
The Old ladies are popular mythological characters and take place from March 1-9. It is said that if you choose your "Old Lady" between March 1-9, how the weather will be on that day, so will the rest of the year. The Old Ladies are also known and dubbed the Days of Old lady Dochia.
It is said that if the weather is good on the day of the Old Lady you choose, then you will have a year full of luck and achievements.
The legend is related to Old lady Dochia, who brings winter and who begins in March to shed one of the nine husks.
Thus, with each husk removed, it gets warmer outside, and winter is replaced by spring.
Old Ladies are chosen based on birthday. Thus, a person who is born between 1-9 will have and Old Lady according to the date he was born.
If your date of birth consists of two digits, they are added until one digit remains. For example, for someone born on the 13th, the calculation is as follows: 1+3= 4. source
The translation could be a bit difficult to understand, but I hope you get the meaning.
After reading the meaning, now it makes more sense to me. There are 9 ladies on the painting and as you can see, one is half naked, which means she's day 9. (And I thought it's a party and the ladies had too much to drink 😁) Unfortunately back in those days people were really superstitious, believed a lot of things that most likely made their life more difficult.
Portrait Of A Monk
Monks have a different look and wear in each country. In Romania, the majority of the population is of Orthodox religion and I'm guessing the monk in the painting is of the same religion. The pose of the monk is a bit strange to me, plus he's barefoot I assume as monks here don't wear flip flops. However, the facial expression of the person is excellent.
Fair
This painting made me laugh. My routine at exhibitions is always this: first I look at the painting or sculpture or whatever it is in front of me, try to figure out that I see, then I look at the title, if it has one and see if I was right. (Don't tell anyone, but I rarely am.) Then I look at it again and try to see what the artist meant. If I can, obviously.
When I saw this painting, my first instinct was telling me that this is a fight happening in a village, or a scene after a party, where everyone had a few. Also reminded me of those old paintings featuring a few village people sitting in a dark kitchen, at a naked wooden table, with a few vegetables on it, basically screaming of poverty. Was I wrong? Oh boy! I was, big time!
I've never thought this could be a fair to be honest, but I'm glad I don't have to shop there :) Regardless, it's a nice one.
Death Of Decebal
Before I tell you the story about this painting, allow me tell you who Decebal was.
Decebalus (r. 87 – 106 AD), sometimes referred to as Diurpaneus, was the last Dacian king. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors. After raiding south across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invasion in the reign of Domitian, securing a period of independence during which Decebalus consolidated his rule. source
This painting is an imagined battle in which Decebal got killed.
I left the photo uncropped for you to see the size of the painting. Look at the small one next to it on the left, to have an idea. According to my estimation, it could easily be 1.5m tall, which can be considered exceptional these days as you don't see paintings of this size. I told the gallery lady that you can only see such size canvases in big museums like the ones in Paris or Amsterdam.
Even if you're not an art expert (who is, to be honest) you can see it's an exceptional work, detailed with nice colors. I was told that at the opening, there was a representative of an art gallery from Cluj, who offered 20,000€ for this painting and the artist refused the offer. You can imagine the value of it.
The Village Herdsman
This piece made me smile again. When I saw it, my first though was that this man could be some South American dancer. Imagine my surprise when I saw this gentleman is the village herdsman. Now tell me if he looks like a South American dancer to you too, or more like a herdsman. Regardless what you see, it's definitely a nice one.
Self Portrait With Red Vest
I've never met the artist, so I wouldn't know if the painting looks like him or not, but I ran a search to see a photo of the artist and kind of looks like him. I was always wondering how can one paint their own portrait. I mean when they consider it finished, if ever. When can you say you're satisfied with the work and it looks like you? I don't think I could, to be honest.
Portrait Of A Woman
Poor lady looks sad, disappointed or angry. For me it's not a problem as I prefer real emotions on canvas, rather than fake faces, as it happens today with those daily selfies people can't live without. I like the tone of the painting, how her hair matches the background color to some degree, shifting the attention to her face.
Another detail I'd like to point out is the frames. Look at how beautiful these frames are. Choosing the right frame for a canvas is essential.
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