Every so often the emergence of a figure like this will serve both to reinforce certain art world myths, and to provide reassurance to others toiling in obscurity by adding fuel to their comforting delusions. Romanian artist Ion Barladeanu, (b. 1946), spent more than thirty years refusing to live as an ‘honorable citizen’, whilst working, virtually in secret, on collages of real finesse that fuse pop, dada, and surrealism. His works comment on the country of his birth both before, but predominantly after the Ceausescu regime. They are composites of printed and photographic detritus, including many advertisements, from the broken society in which he lived. The figure of American artist Henry Darger springs to mind as an obvious comparison, though Barladeanu’s work is less idiosyncratic and one cannot help but situate it within a European tradition, despite the obvious influence of American pop. It’s hard to tell from images on the web whether the work is really any good or not. Has the art world fallen for him because of the quality of the works or because of the myth surrounding their creation? It’s hard to say. I’m more than little late on this one, Angelina Jolie is already a fan. Must try harder. Read more here.
March has brought a significant improvement in the weather in Brum making wondering the streets as a pass time much more acceptable. I am taking the opportunity to explore more hoping to find something, anything, of interest out there.
Last night I saw a documentary of Barladeanu and his works on the Dutch Television . I was really impressed by the qualitity of the art he made like the works of f.i Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi.