Abstract expression in art is very special. To some it seems nonsense and they ignore it. Some others take time to understand it through learning and training and find to be amazingly rewarded, by the richness they discover. Here is my story:

Cafe Ladro 2014

In the summer of 1957, on a short stop in Moscow, flying for my student vacation from China back to Romania, I visited Pushkin Art Museum. In a big important room, behind a shady wall, hidden from main traffic, hang a huge, probably 8 feet tall, abstract painting by Kandinsky. I have never seen an abstract painting, all I knew was that it belongs to a decadent artist, decadent style and it is not valuable Art.

My spontaneous reaction surprised me. It moved me so much, that my eyes filled with tears. In the same room were several walls covered with Rembrandt masterpieces, recognized and praised world wide. I looked at them, intellectually admired the realism of depiction, painter’s skills, but missing that deep emotion which brought me to tears in front of the Kandinsky’s painting.

What is the meaning of this memory which stays so vivid with me now, more than sixty years later? What made my heart pound and filled my eyes with tears, so I could never forget this encounter? It was the power of imagination? It was the puzzle of abstract shapes and colors? To this day I do not see the details of that painting, just feel fresh the powerful impact of sudden emotions. When I came to the US, I read every single book about Kandinsky, trying to understand, penetrate, demystify his world, his truth, to understand through him myself in my passion for abstracted representations. Understanding the power of abstract expression it came natural to me, to express myself in an abstracted way. I learned a lot. Reading books, browsing albums, taking notes, I got to know other abstract artists, whose work spoke to me, opened my mind and brought the understanding I was searching for.

By Lucia Neagu|July 21, 2018|General|0 Comments