Page 26 - World of Art magazine (2000)

Petru russu sweden

Born 1955 January 27 Reghin (Transylvania), Romania. Dual ART ReLATeD emPLOymenTs Founder and director of art Norwegian int’l Miniature exhibition, Miniature 7, Fredrikstad
citizenship, Swedish and Romanian. addiction international Gallery in Stockholm and world of art, Norway; 1991 Viking erotica, Glass Forms, individual exhibition,
eDucATiOn Graduated from the Fine arts academy of cluj- international art magazine. Risse Gallery Munches Germany; 1990 The 11th print int’l award,
Napoca 1978. italian Government Studentship 1986. seLecTeD exhibiTiOns 1975-1997 1997 contemporary Graphic Biella italy; 1990 The 5th annual int’l exhibition of Miniature art
art creativity includes a limited edition of 100 etchings inspired art from Finland and Sweden, university of Virginia /Fayerwather Toronto canada; 1990 The 10th Mini print int’l cadaques Spain;
by Boccaccios’ (1985), limited editions of etchings inspired by Gallery uSa; 1996 The 8th int’l print Triennial, creativa, alvar alto 1990 The 9th int’l print Triennial, Berlin, Germany; 1989 ”The
umberto eco’s ”The Name of the Rose” and ”The pendulum of Museum Finland; 1994 int’l impact art Festival, Kyoto Japan; pendulum of Foucault” individual exhibition, Gummeson Gallery
Foucault” created in (1987~1989). He has works in museums, 1994 The 3rd world print Triennial, chamalieur France; 1994 The Stockholm Sweden; 1989 “The name of the Rose”, and ”Decam-
public, corporate and private collections. 14th Mini print int’l, cadaques Spain; 1993 Viking erotica, glass, erone 100 etching” individual exhibition Konstnärshuset,
AfiLiATiOns KRo /Swedish Fine artist’s organisation; aaiaa individual exhibition, Gallery Glass i, Stockholm Sweden; 1993 Stockholm Sweden; 1989 ”The Name of the Rose” individual
/art addiction international art association; uap /Romanian alternative, group exhibition, Gallery Glass i, Stockholm Sweden; exhibition, centro lavoro arte Milan italy; 1989 The 5th int’l art
Fine artist’s organisation. 1993 international Summer art colony, Gällivare Sweden; 1992 Biennale, couven Belgium; 1989 The 3rd annual int’l exhibition
RADiO AnD TeLevisiOn TVS 2 Sweden 1994, canal 4 Sweden The 10th Norwegian int’l print Triennial, Fredrikstad Norway; of Miniature art Toronto canada; 1989 The 8th Mini print int’l
1993, TVR Romania 1993, STV 1 Sweden 1989 (with umberto 1992 The 8th Norwegian int’l Miniature exhibition, Miniature 8, cadaques Spain; 1989 int’l Miniature print Biennial, John Szoke
eco), RTV Romania 1989, Tele Tevere italy 1987, TVR Romania Fredrikstad Norway; 1992 The 12th Mini print int’l, cadaques Gallery New York uSa; 1989 The 6th int’l Biennial of Graphic
1980, p3 europe Sweden 1994, Radio Romania 1997, 1989, Spain; 1991 ”New paintings” individual exhibition, pulchri Gallery, art, lods poland; 1989 The 9th Norwegian int’l print Triennial
1987, 1980, 1978, 1976. Represented in Flash art int’l, art Diary The Hague Holland; 1991 The 11th Mini print int’l, cadaques Spain; Fredrikstad Norway; 1989 The 9th int’l Biennial of Humor and
int’l, art News 1991 int’l Graphic art, Darien, connecticut, uSa; 1991 The 7th Satire in the arts Gabrovo Bulgaria; 1989 The Name of the Rose,
woRDS BY DAn hãuLicã hOnORARy PResiDenT Of The ART inTeRnATiOnAL cRiTic AssOciATiOn (A.i.c.A.)
in PeTRu Russu’s engravings for Boccaccio’s himself-while he was writing about Dante-used the artistic attitude of Petru Russu is like a sort
Decameron, the twisted frenzy of the bodies to wonder if his illustrious master might have of a dialogue around the origins of the middle
arouses an impression of true release. It is a been angry up above. Boccaccio will not be European Expressionism. Nevertheless, here
release that breaks limits, avoiding the difference angry, because he himselflook a lot of freedom the artist privileges the game among historical-
between styles, social situations and historical- regarding the epic matter he utilized. It was the stylistic connotation which overcome that main
geographical sites. They are not “illustrations” freedom of a superior distance. Boccaccio was quality: suddenly he wants to reach a formal
confined to a particular moment of the European the first author capable of dominating the most mechanism verifiable in the entire cycle dedicated
history: although within the images there are different subjects-both from a social-historical to Calendrino, with all those lamentable cases
some allusions to the fashion of that age, a sort and popular-dialectal point of view-with that that Boccaccio assigns him. It is a mechanism
of set-designing care, everything wrapped around distance that belongs to the artistic discipline. comparable to some tendency of the modern art:
a dance of vitality that doesn’t want to accept I think that this example is very important not the mechanic anatomy of Picabia’s drawings,
stylistic appearances. In the end, the sensation we only for those who create illustrations for books, Duchamp, the facetious combination of Tinguely
have is a dépaysement deriving from this attitude, but also for those artists who confront themselves and Luginbuhl, where the sense of humor doesn’t
not from a method. A dépaysement that is not with this gigantic masterpieces’ provocation. exclude an accent of restlessness.
a metaphorical book learning distance, but an bOccAcciO dominates the subject. He In Russu’s work, these mechanisms are easily
aspiration for the totality that excludes pedantic reconsiders the epic plot and at the same time, comparable to an inner organ. The funnels, the
philological discriminations. he framed it inside the rigorous structure of the crutches and all the mechanisms of that artistic
WhiLe he was setting up his exhibition, an Decameron, inside sentences where the liveliness tradition become in some of his engravings
Italian pointed out some similarities with Chinese of the quip and of the dialectal allusion obeys the similar to the movement of the watches of Callot’s
art. Someone else found analogies with the vivid discipline of a rhythm. A rhythm, distinguished engraving, a world in which this dimension has
chromatic of the popular Mexican engravings. by participles with a latin flavor and by everything already gone through the vulnerability of human
Nevertheless, the exoticism of Petru Russu’s that recalls the rules, the refined modalities of nature.
images comes from a sort of poetic latitude, creating a phrase with nobility, as it is in the in OuR TechnOLOGicAL time, this dimension-
from a distance that he assumes in front of the tradition of the ancient rhetoric. both mechanical and organic-perfectly obeys a
narration of the facts. It is -at the most-the same This mixTuRe of promiscuous vividness that contemporary attitude. It is not casual in fact,
exoticism used by Boccaccio when he imagined forms Boccaccio’s subject an-at the same time-of that Petru Russu has already been invited to
Saladin traveling around the Christian world, high artistic discipline, it seems to me a theme that participate at exhibitions regarding themes
around Lombardy, to test the hospitality and deserves consideration from anyone who wants to about the contemporary experimentalism:
the magnanimity of the same people he wanted approach this text. It is important to feel pushed “Space-Mirror”, “Alternative”; but he has
to fight. to a certain attitude, as Russu did exhaustively also demonstrated his interest for that subject
TheRe is an entire cycle of medieval legends dealing with the Decameron universe. in his solo-shows. Undoubtedly, he likes this
about Saladin. Recently, I have met an eminent Petru Russu comes from Transylvania. His kind of investigation. Here, in his work, about
art scholar, descendant of a distinguished art seems influenced by some expressionist Boccaccio’s Decameron, he has transferred
Crusader knight that had the fortune to benefit master: Kokoschka in his best period (1914), all his fundamental problems. In fact, when
from that magnanimity. He was captured by with his unique chromaticity and his particular an illustrator approaches a masterpiece of the
Saladin, who then set him free, on the condition way of considering the space of the page; past, it is legitimate that he carries with himself
that he paid the ransom once he had returned to Kandinsky, with the twisty strength of this all his cultural background, his problems, his
his house. But when the knight returned home, image. Consequently, we can easily say that sensibility.
he didn’t find any money to pay the ransom. So, Petru Russu is a courageous artist. During the
he decided to go back to prison. Saladin was years his work has been correlated by austere
impressed by his gesture, and set him free once and sober solutions, as by more provocative,
again only on the condition that he change his colorful liveliness. All these prolific variations
name to Saladin d’Anglure. This name still exists are characterized by two main things: the
after 800 years. stimulating resumption of a great cultural model,
i mAke This example, because the exoticism the importance of a certain persistency.
of Petru Russu tells of a magnificent East. An The fAcT that Boccaccio was one of the first
East of admiration and wonder, that has nothing readers of Homer’s original texts and an artist
to do with the tendency to indulge in detailed capable to conjugate the “holly studies” with
descriptions. It is this exoticism I am writing an apparent frivolousness, can conduces-as
about. An exoticism that Russu seems to bend illustrators-to assume as a gift this prolific
into science fiction, populated by characters that persistency.*
look like ancient Egyptians, or Chinese princes
dressed with hundreds of jade stones, as the
ones discovered by the archeologists. Boccaccio
will not be angry for such interpretation. He

24 WORLD of ART Special iSSue 2000