No. 31 / July 2020
Mihai Plămădeală, art critic – article published in Tribuna magazine, no. 326 / 2016
For Relu Biţulescu’s artistic work, there is no established specialized terminology in Romania and in the world. This fact defines the unique character of his artworks, always composite, unconventional, experimental, which can be interpreted as assemblies, painted objects, or even installations.
After a period of creation that we could call “Stairway to Heaven”, after the name of the exhibition from 2011 and the catalog edited on that occasion, he started in 2015 working for another exhibition project, entitled “Between the Worlds”.
The ambivalent relation to past and present epochs, the transcendence of iconographic sources, the abolition of subjects, the decontextualization and recontextualization or exacerbation of the fragment are just some of the elements that define his works. Otherwise, superlative art, with decorative values, but never decorative!
At a purely morphological level, we are dealing with associations of elements and techniques that have no correspondent in the real world, at least not in the functional world, nor in that of some stylistic categories, if we refer strictly to art. From a conceptual point of view, the artist’s discourse is equally coherent, eclectic and fully assumed.
The constitutive reasons of his works are always of aesthetic origin and imply the recontextualization of some objects that we are used to looking at from completely different perspectives. The interventions that they know, in principle of chromatic nature, have the role of emphasizing the heteromorphic character of the ensembles, which otherwise seem unitary organic.
Often, the frame plays an active role in the economy of the pieces, being able to impose itself in the main decorative or sculptural element. Beyond obtaining ingenious visual effects, the sub-framing of frames of a certain type by others of a completely different nature, has the function of postmodern quotation marks. The visual quote coexists with the historical one, but the real story only begins here.
As a finite shape, the objects proposed by Relu Biţulescu, often made of embossed metal, could be considered paradoxically, minimalist-baroque. The recessed or cast paintings refer to the most diverse periods, from the Middle Ages, Renaissance or Baroque, to the 20th century. The relation of some styles, genres or manners if not opposite, at least distinct, eludes any Dadaist attributes. The whole is kept under the aegis of consonance and decorative appearances.
The artist offers surprises in each of his works: pieces of clothing of some painted characters are continued in the form of real embroideries in the passe-partout space, as well as the velvet in the images; frames from the 19th century frame tin sheets “painted” with acids; neutral surfaces are polished with gold foil; the water of some Venice landscapes drains out of the paintings; intervention art and gaps are part of the visual lexicon and the list could go on and on. However, all these are not tricks and do not represent the stake of the works, but only unifying visual components.
Relu Biţulescu is interested in the biunivocal relations between tradition and modernity, in this case the contemporary artistic tendencies to take over the experiences offered by the past and the way in which the legacy of previous epochs can gain autonomy, under the sign of Postmodernism.
