Yesterday I went to another art exhibition, which was unique in its own way. The exhibition was not an usual one, it was a private collection, which changes things quite a bit. When there's one artist exhibiting, you see a certain stile. When there are a lot of artists, you may see a certain theme, or just various themes and stiles. When there's a private collection, you see someone's taste in art.
The owner of the collection is a doctor. I was surprised to see such a large private collection and what I saw was just part of it. There were artworks from 40 artists and around 70 artworks, paintings, drawings and collages.
It's the second time I'm visiting this gallery and I love it. It's called fortress gallery and it's quite old, dates back to medieval times.
When I stepped into the gallery, I noticed the owner of the collection talking to some guests. In a way I was glad as I've rarely seen the artists at the exhibition, for the simple reason that I'm avoiding openings. When the guests left, the owner went back to the other exhibition room as started talking to someone else, but pretty soon I had to realize he was giving an interview. This changed everything for me. I was glad to hear what the owner was saying about his collection and the exhibition, but was also a holdup as I could not interrupt the interview, so I had to wait.
Lonely Tree
When I stepped into the gallery, I knew right away I'm going to see some amazing works. This was one of them. Even if the painting looks simple, I love the colors.
Laundresses
This was the second painting I saw and I said this was the best, without seeing the rest. If you try to imagine such a scene in real life, you would say the one word that can be said about it would be poverty, but even so, I loved the colors of the painting and the concept. Back in those days laundry was done in the river, manually and it was hard work. In my opinion, the artist captured the moment perfectly. I would have chosen a cream paper around the artwork, to shift the eye towards the painting, but that's my personal choice.
In The Boat
Interesting color choice to illustrate the water and possibly some waves.
The Sky
This was another very cool one and if you look at the next photo, which is a close up, maybe you'll figure out why.
This was painted on old newspaper. I'm not entirely sure, but could be pencil or chalk. Doesn't seem like painting. Also, if you look carefully, you can see a drawing beneath the colors. A family of three, father, mother and son. Don't know why the artist decided to cover the drawing as you can even miss it if you don't pay attention. I love art on old newspaper though, but can't explain why. It looks very interesting to me. Maybe I should try it. I still have some old, yellowish book pages, so i may give it a try.
Top Of Lavota
I know I've already said this a couple of times in this post, but I love this too. It's a bit of a rough art, but I love it. I can see that small and poor village in front of my eyes and the hard life those people had.
The Tree
Simple, but beautiful. Created in 1987.
River Bank
This was a strange concept. Riverbanks can be like that, but mostly gray as stones are gray. Unless those are not stones but something else. Looking at the painting, I would have never guessed the title.
Tadpoles
Dry Tree
And here it is, my biggest enemy at exhibitions, the reflection. I could not escape from it, not even here. This was a simple painting, minimalist if I can say that and would have been nice to see it without reflections.
Forest
This painting was from the same artist, you may recognize the minimalist style.
Rime
Speaking of minimalist, here's another one, from a different author though.
Frost
This is a painting from the same author as the previous one. This one was painted in 1975, but can't figure out the date of the other. However, the colors and the tone of the paintings look similar.
Storm Over Harghita
After the last two paintings, this was a nice change. It reminded me of those days when thick clouds are covering the sky and the rays of the sun finally manage to break through the clouds. Although it was a bit too colorful, I liked this one too.
After leaving the exhibition was thinking how one person is collecting different artworks over a lifetime. This collection has been put together in decades. Some of the artists are not among us anymore, which makes their painting more valuable. I am really lucky to have had the occasion to see these paintings as private collections are ... you know ... private. The owner decided to show his collection to the public, which can not only be considered an act of kindness, but it's also a way to celebrate these artists. The municipality made this happen, so I'm grateful to them as well. The exhibition is in Targu Mures, it's open till the end of March this year and the entry is free.
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