Christian D. Stefanovici

France

Paris

PRISKA PASQUER GALLERY

Painting

3 Tauben (an schwäbischer Straße)

Backpiece

Multiball 

3 Tauben II

Backpiece Anthem

Im Fenster gespiegelt (Südstadtausblick) 

Inszenierung mit T. und S

Johann sitzend mit Stern

CHRISTIAN D. STEFANOVICI 
Haschen nach Wind
Malerei

In many ways, the painting of Christian Stefanovici (born in Timișoara, Romania, in 1982; lives and works in Cologne) refers to themes and practices from art history yet is very much a reflection of the here and now.
Stefanovici prepares his painting utensils using traditional methods: mixing pure pigments in bone glue, stretching canvas over a stretcher frame and frequently applying a first coat of white gesso. As can be seen from a number of paintings in the exhibition, this gesso coat lends an opaque quality to the paint application, giving it another “tone” on the base material.
Stefanovici deliberately embraces painterly traditions but in spite of this – or maybe even because of it – he likes to break with established dogma. Through his use of lineation in pastel on compositions consisting of coloured areas, he combines two pioneering artistic approaches of the Renaissance: the Florentine “disegno” with the primary focus on the linear structure of a drawing and the Venetian principle of “colorito”, which juxtaposes colours to define a composition. The inclusion of a written word in the picture also flies in the face of art doctrine.
Stefanovici sees the isms of art history as languages that he translates into contemporary painting. An ism is invariably the manifestation of a particular cultural attitude and Stefanovici’s painting brings these isms together syncretistically to form a contemporary, pluralistic worldview. Which means that elements of symbolism or magic realism can be detected in his œuvre, together with – depending on the socialisation of the viewer – aspects of cinema or of digitality, such as cursors or beamer menus.

His work includes interiors, contemporary genre paintings, portraits and still life. The motifs originate from the artist’s immediate environment and are imbued with varying levels of personal experience. Virtually warts-and-all reality makes an occasional appearance, although elements of this reality alternate expertly between realistic reproduction and abstract compression.
One significant aspect of Stefanovici’s work is the way he explores questions and phenotypes of realistic painting in great depth. This gives rise to a tension between occasionally awkward-seeming compositions and the creation of realistic motifs. The puzzling combination of painterly finesse and apparent dilettantism is a deliberate break with aesthetic conventions, culminating in a kind of “meta-painting”. Christian Stefanovici’s pictures challenge our perception in a world subject to an aestheticised flood of images from advertising and painstakingly edited Instagram posts – a world in which we are all too used to being presented with perfectly processed compositions. In his art, Stefanovici shines a spotlight on the expectation that we have come to have of an “appealing composition” and proceeds to subvert it. The prioritisation on a more experienced than constructed perspective calls to mind the representation of three-dimensionality in Byzantine mosaics, medieval illumination and icons.

The pluralism of styles and the interplay between imperfection and perfectionism, between motifs from modern everyday life and historical techniques, between serenity and spirituality –all of this can be grouped together under the search for truthfulness in art.
One of the most recent paintings, the large-format Inszenierung mit T. und S. (2020) shows the word “Prediger” (Ecclesiastes) on the right-hand side of the table, thus serving as the inspiration for the exhibition title. The word refers to verses from the Old Testament: “So I decided to find out about wisdom and knowledge and also about foolish thinking, but this turned out to be like chasing the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:17)
In the same way, the paintings can be said to be merely snapshots of an endless search – chasing the wind.
(Elke Kania)

Christian Dumitru Stefanovici
Born in 1982 in Timișoara, Romania
Lives and works in Cologne

2015-2018 Doctorate in Fine Arts under Prof. Dumitru Serban, West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Art and Design, Timișoara, Romania
2010-2013 Düsseldorf Art Academy, Prof. Tal R
2006-2010 Studied painting under Prof. Gia Edzgveradze, Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Alfter
2005-2006 Studied Philosophy, Romance Studies and Art History at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
www.christianstefanovici.com

Until 31 January 2021:
At Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster
you are here – Artists from NRW on travel
with an Artist’s Space by Christian D. Stefanovici

Haschen nach Wind. Malerei

Haschen nach Wind. Malerei

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