Art
Perhaps unfashionably for a 20th century painter, Baba consciously worked in the tradition of the Old Masters, although, from the outset of his studies with his father, he was also influenced by expressionism, art nouveau, academicism and "remnants" of impressionism. Baba himself cited El Greco, Rembrandt, and Goya as particularly strong influences. This did not put him in good stead either with the official Socialist realism of the Eastern bloc (where, especially in the early Communist years, he periodically received damning criticism—and sometimes punishment, such as being suspended from teaching—for his "formalism").
Nearly all of Corneliu Baba's work remains in Romania; hardly a major museum in that country is without some of his work. Among his notable works are a 1952 portrait of Mihail Sadoveanu (now in Bucharest's National Art Museum) and a 1957 portrait of Krikor Zambaccian, (now in the Zambaccian Museum, also in Bucharest). One of his few pieces on public display outside of Romania is a rather impressionistic 1977-79 group scene entitled Fear, (one of several in a "Fears" series) in the Szépművészeti Museum in Budapest.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Baba did an extensive series of paintings of Harlequins and "Mad Kings",; most of the latter remained in the artist's personal collection until his death, much as with Francisco Goya and his "black paintings".
Read more about this topic: Corneliu Baba
Famous quotes containing the word art:
“That life is really so tragic would least of all explain the origin of an art form—assuming that art is not merely imitation of the reality of nature but rather a metaphysical supplement of the reality of nature, placed beside it for its overcoming.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”
—Faith Ringgold (b. 1934)
“We all agree now—by “we” I mean intelligent people under sixty—that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. Unluckily, the matter does not end there: a rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind.”
—Clive Bell (1881–1962)