The Poetry of Painting: Eugen Raportoru’s Urban Landcapes
Eugen Raportoru, one of the most important Romanian painters of his generation, whose raw and vibrant style imposes by its depth a mise-en-abyme of our own emotions in the face of time, is our guest artist in April. His first UK solo show, entitled ‘Urban Report’ and comprising a selection of works that interrogate the soul and memory of place, will open in our Brâncuși Gallery in the artist’s presence.
The opening will include the screening of Ovidiu Darian’s ‘The Claim to a Face’, an award-winning documentary that delves into Raportoru’s startling way of making art, and a mini-recital offered by exuberant violinist Mălina Ciobanu. The exhibition is curated by Mihai Hurezeanu.
“With each exhibition, the painter proves to be more in control of his means of expression, with a more personal and uniform style and vision. The characteristic feature of his painting seems to be his great lyrical discretion that avoids any issues that may be ‘spectacular’ by themselves. Refusing the «noise» of thread colours that make any deeper meaning unintelligible by their uproar, Raportoru’s painting requires form the viewer his inner silence and the attention needed to perceive a whispered confession.” – art critic Victor Ernest Maşek
With a Master’s Degree in Painting from the National University of the Arts in Bucharest, Eugen Raportoru is the only Romanian artist of Roma origin to have exhibited his works at the Royal Academy of Arts, at the Vatican – under the aegis of UNESCO, at the Ethnic Museum in Oslo and in Stockholm. The artist’s talent for painting and graphics was already discovered at age of 14, when he exhibited at the Grivița Cinema in Bucharest. In Romania’s capital, Raportoru has also exhibited at the Palace of Parliament, in the Brâncuşi Hall at the Simeza Gallery, at Art House or at Gold Art, and his work was also presented in the cities of Sibiu and Sinaia. His mentors were Mihai Cizmaru and Ion Brodeală, followed by Corneliu Baba and Marcel Bunea, whose workshops he frequented always bringing his works for evaluation. Eugen Raportoru was commissioned to illustrate several books such as the Romanian-Hungarian-Romany Trilingual Dictionary (Vanemonde Publishing House, 2001); a volume of Biblical texts in Romany, published by the PROVIDENTA Foundation (2002); a reader for Romani children by Vanemonde Publishing House (2001); and The History and Traditions of the Romani People and the Civic Educational Guide, both editions of A.M.M. (2004). His works can be found in private collections in Switzerland, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the USA and Canada.