Petronella Sirbu - "PAINTINGS IN WHICH DRESSES WEAR THE IMAGE" -
by Radovan Gajic - university professor, art critic and writer
Given the natural and mythical richness of the colors of the region where she has her roots, Banat, it is not surprising that Petronella Sirbu chose painting as her profession. In the generally accepted, but unofficial, capital of the Transylvanian province of Romania - Cluj Napoca, Petronella studied art and obtained a master's degree in 1983 at the "Ion Andreescu Academy of Art". She continued her education at Gesamthochschule in Kassel in visual arts from 1992-1993.
As a theme for her academy graduation thesis, Petronella chose the work of the surrealist master Salvador Dali, which influenced her artistic expression throughout her entire career. It seems that from the very beginning she showed her inner affection for movement and the flow of form, in a picture free from the observance of any realistic obligation. Neither the shape nor the colour represented for her the element through which the objectivity in the painting could be recognized. The image had only the meaning of emotional execution; in addition, it was an emotional experience. Recalling her period of academic studies, Petronella points out that for her it was the most interesting part of gaining artistic experience: "It was something completely new for me, an atmosphere of constant and lively exchange of ideas, perhaps the most interesting part of my training as artist. Since then, I have learned that sometimes all I have to do is listen to the perfection of silence and thus discover the colours of my feelings and emotions, which I can then transfer to the canvas and with which I express the details of the revealed inner world."
This approach inevitably led the artist to a clear commitment to abstract expression in her paintings. The largest and most complex organism that man has to deal with is the cosmos, which is in itself and in its essence abstract, as man himself is abstract in his inner body. The only real thing is the moment between these abstractions; painting appears there, a work of art in any form, as an archivist of those moments. Petronella discovers those moments in the perfection of the silences she records, then reveals them to us, in her paintings. Her paths to abstraction in painting - or from the abstraction of her silences to pictorial realities, as she puts it, ran through fragrant flower gardens. Underlined by soft colors and exaggerated sizes, the floral shapes cover the canvases. This expressive realization results in an exceptional coloristic enthusiasm.
Petronella's passion is ballroom dancing, which is important to note, given the evolution of her expression in fine arts. The dancers pay special attention to the dance costumes that create the colorful magic of the ballroom world rituals. For her shows, Petronella spent a lot of time planning, tailoring, sewing her own dresses, giving free rein to her imagination. As she says: "Making my own (real) clothes opened a new world for me to make the clothes (invented) in my most recent paintings." Carried by the sounds of dance music, Petronella discovers new depths of her abstractions. It is quite easy for her to say this, and her words glow with the flame of truth: "The silence and the sounds behind it impress me."
This change of scenery will lead to the invention of environments in which dresses - conditioning, dance costumes - become the main subject for the artist. In paintings, dresses full of ornaments are not worn by anyone; they only suggest the image of non-existent bodies. The forms become dramatic, perceptible in another dynamic. Petronella abstracts the function of her objects - dresses, good to wear, even for a single dance - and puts them at the service of her own artistic story, to make them wear an image. She invents a series of dresses that women cannot wear (or in their imagination can wear them all the time), but creates a desire to do so, a desire to see the body in such an adornment.
The artistic work of the painter is still studious and precise and, on some canvases, strongly aggressive, manifesting itself in the thickness and force of paint application, as well as its mixing, either through complementarity or through repulsion. To arouse the observer's imagination, Petronella adds details of real decoration to the paintings (such as parts of brooches, lace, beads, in their original state ... ), already in a dramatic moment, breathing life into bodyless dresses. With all these additional procedures, Petronella emphasizes the exceptional dynamics of the dramas unfolding on her canvases, breathing into them her original abstraction rhythm. Thus, abstracted from their original function, dresses get their own life and spread, inevitably, positive energy vibrations in/to the observer, arousing the desire to be either worn or undressed.
From a stylistic point of view, the whole show of these phenomenally composed garments (the dress undressed, thrown, exposed, hidden ...) is made with the help of decorative elements in the foreground, in fusion with those in the background of the painting, - a technique used with zeal, long ago, by Wols, a representative of German Abstract Expressionism, by his real name Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, 1913-1951. But Petronella, between the background and the elements of drama on the canvas, recites poems in colours, worded according to her feeling, highlighting the general colour vigor of the entire painting, thus conveying a unique energy charge to her artistic scenes. The sounds of dance music, a happy day, an unforgettable walk, an immortal summer, a Sunday afternoon ... all come off Petronella Sirbu's artwork to conquer the viewer. And everything starts a story that has not yet been told to the end.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Petronella Sirbu's works delight private and official spaces around the world, in Canada, USA, Germany, Greece, Sweden, France, Belgium, Egypt, Romania.
Toronto - October 2, 2020
