ROBERT MUNTEAN

Entitled ‘Future Days’, it is, like his previous exhibitions, very influenced by music. Whereas his previous influences were very dense musical groups like ‘The Swans, this time the reference point is the German group Can’s album ‘Future Days’. In Muntean’s words, ‘the record starts with the title track ‘Future Days’ and the space is open and there is nothing to hold onto in sight. This open space with nothing to hold onto describes my latest works pretty well.

It also describes the feeling of the works - we are uncertain about what the future brings we try to hang on to each other to protect ourselves, protect our hopes. I like to offer some positive excitement, I’m very hopeful and the feelings my works offers is hopeful. There’s melancholy but it’s more about reassuring ourselves and about understanding what we have and who we are. There is also an intimacy about the works as they are very private.’ (Muntean)

These new paintings by the artist have a great tenderness. The emptying of the space enables us to fully concentrate on the beauty of Muntean’s figures. He has always been a great colourist in the time honoured Austrian tradition but removing the density of his traditional web of brush strokes allows the colour to achieve greater luminosity.

Muntean thinks deeply about his art. In his previous paintings he was looking for a way to paint sound and distortion. Now, beginning with working with water colour, it led him to discover a new openness in his painting style. He wanted to make his paintings brighter. He refers to using alkyd white which enabled him to use thin layers of white to give the paintings almost the feel of water colours. Muntean has continually searched for new ways to paint. Earlier in his career, his works became more and more abstract before eventually returning to the figure as absolute protagonist. However, this time the figure has great lightness and clarity.

Press release courtesy rosenfeld