Page 11 - THE DECAMERON: A Visionary Journey in 100 Stories and 100 Etchings by Petru Russu

the entire cycle dedicated to Calendrino, with all those lamentable
Russu's figurative tales are not descriptive but connected to the text cases that Boccaccio assigns him. It is a mechanism comparable to
through a pure, fantastic solicitation that the artist renews time after some tendencies of modern art: the mechanical anatomy of Picabia's
time. The text stimulates his taste and genius for a narrative plot drawings, Duchamp, the facetious combination of Tinguely and
derived from his visionary world, where symbolic presences emerge. Luginbuhl, where the sense of humor doesn't exclude an accent of
restlessness.
His sheets are precious for their vivid but softened chromatic, insinuating
among the spaces made by a skillful etching mark. In front of Russu's In Russu's work, these mechanisms are easily comparable to an
engravings, we feel as if we are in front of ancient miniatures, animated inner organ. The funnels, the crutches, and all the mechanisms
by tensions and enchantments. There is a surrealist component in of that artistic tradition become in some of his engravings similar
Russu's figurative world, giving him the freedom to reach a fantastic to the movement of the watches in Callot's engraving, a world in
dimension as a space of visionary revelation, reminiscent of the which this dimension has already gone through the vulnerability
Romanian Brauner's archetypal surrealism. of human nature.

Those dimensions remain at the stage of spheres of allusion. They Here, in his work about Boccaccio's "Decameron," he has transferred
reference the mechanical plot of our contemporary world and the all his fundamental problems. In fact, when an illustrator approaches
iconic plot that chases us daily. But they also reference a remote a masterpiece of the past, it is legitimate that he carries with himself
organic root, an anthropological truth on which the motivations of a all his cultural background, his problems, his sensibility.
visionary symbolism, like Russu's, are based.
Petru Russu is a bold artist. Over the years, his work has been
Petru Russu comes from Transylvania. His art seems influenced by characterized by austere and sober solutions, as well as by more
some expressionist masters: Kokoschka in his best period (1914), provocative, colorful liveliness. All these prolific variations are
with his unique chromaticity and his particular way of considering the characterized by two main things: the stimulating resumption of a
space of the page; Kandinsky, with the twisty strength of his image. great cultural model and the importance of a certain persistency.

Consequently, we can easily say that the artistic attitude of Petru A study of Boccaccio’s Decameron and a review of Enrico Crispolti
Russu is like a sort of dialogue around the origins of middle European (Italian art critic, curator and art historian) and Ingrid Rose, (The
Expressionism. Nevertheless, here the artist privileges the game Washington Print Club, Washington DC), critical essays, published
among historical-stylistic connotations, which overcomes that main for the opening of Petru Russu’s exhibition interpreting Giovanni
quality: suddenly he wants to reach a formal mechanism verifiable in Boccaccio’s Decameron in 100 engravings (The Romanian Academy in
Rome, Italy 1986).

Prince Galeotto

THE DECAMERON OF PETRU RUSU
1985 COLORED AQUATINTA AQUAFORTE
21X29 CM | 8½X11½ IN
7
The Decameron