No. 21 /February 2020
Mihai Plămădeală, art critic – article published in Pământ – Cosmos (Earth – Cosmos), ed. Centrul Cultural Palatele Brâncoveneşti, 2012
Metaphorically speaking, the ceramic artist is close by the nature of its work, to magic, alchemy and even astrology, domains regarded since ancient times as means of seizing the mysteries of nature and human destiny. Eastern mysticism, imported by European scholars, along with local occult traditions, was a constant source of inspiration for Western Art. To occupy a position balanced with the premise of our critical text, the ceramic is by excellence mineral kingdom, directed and controlled energy storage, a new, artificial form, bearing a message distinct from the morphological area.
The approach of the celestial and terrestrial subjects, the craft secrets related to composition, combustion, technology steps and most importantly the vocabulary of celestial, sometimes zodiacal signs, recommend George Tiutin as an artist connected to both the Axis Mundi and the universal vibration.
The spherical, ellipsoid, always closed forms, made of various materials and processes, represent the artist’s absolute iconic form. This includes the idea of centrifugal motion, of dogmatic egg, if the reader accepts this license, of starting without an end or, why not, the cob, in an archetypal sense. At a first reading this may seem limiting, but the formal similarity with the cosmos, of course, taking into account the necessary adjustments imposed by the scarcity of labor and artistic will, demonstrates that all parts of the world are connected by invisible threads, due to laws that fit on one page of a notebook.
Related by the critical pages of the 1960s – 70s, even the 80s, to the Romanian traditional art and the ancestral regarded as a mark of the rural, to the cultural fashion of the times (keeping all proportions, let’s not forget that the same label is put to Brancusi also), George Tiutin remains the initiated artist rather than the amnesiac old hand, to call a formula of Mircea Eliade.
The tangible, practical elements, the clumps of Tiutin to say so, are part of the truth unrevealed yet, but readable through initiation. The artist reserves the privilege of saying that there is no universe without harmony and no meaningless act. Nothing happens by chance, everything is part of a plan and we all contribute to its development, even more than that, all (micro or macro) seems to be equally important in this system. All these, and much more, are communicated by the artist exclusively by means of ceramic art.

Material, Shape and Meaning: George Tiutin
article published in Observator Cultural, no.628/15.06.2012
Between 2nd and 20th of June 2012, the Cultural Center “Palatele Brâncoveşti” Mogoşoaia stages in one of its special spaces, House of Arts, George Tiutin’s solo show, “Earth – Cosmos”. The ceramic globes proposed by the artist, unique in their diversity, always derived from spherical form, find their ideal exposure algorithm as parts of a dual installation through which they are integrated into macrostructures, both for being shown and hidden. Beyond the decorative side, the conceptual dimension is the result of more than five decades of work, experiments and searches. The exhibition has powerful iconic connotations.
It is not about planets made of ceramics, nor of tautologies concerning the celestial objects, viewed from below or above, but about relationships between material and shape, shape and meaning, meaning and decode.
I conclude by informing the reader that George Tiutin is a distinguished ceramic artist educated in the early sixties in the workshop led by architect Mac Constantinescu and sculptor Zoe Băicoianu, after a surprising transfer from Corneliu Baba’s class. In the author’s intention, the exhibition I am referring to is a tribute to his great teachers.
The ceramic artist approaches, metaphorically speaking, by the very nature of his activity, magic, alchemy and even astrology, fields considered since antiquity means of penetrating the mysteries of nature and human destiny. Oriental mysticism, imported by European scholars, along with local occult traditions were a permanent source of inspiration for Western art. For a more balanced position in relation to the premise of this article, I emphasize that ceramics represents par excellence the mineral kingdom, directed and controlled accumulation of energy, new, artificial form, carrying a message distinct from the morphological side.

Approaching celestial and earthly themes, professional secrets related to composition, burning type, technological steps and especially the lexicon of astral signs, sometimes zodiacal, recommends George Tiutin as an artist connected both to the Axis of the World and to universal vibration. The spherical, ellipsoidal shapes, always closed, made of materials and by various processes, represent the exemplary shape reached by the master. These include the idea of centrifugal movement, of dogmatic egg, if the reader accepts my license, of beginning without end or, why not, of lump, in an archetypal sense. At first reading it may seem a (self) limitation, but the formal similarity with the cosmos, of course, taking into account the necessary adjustments imposed by the austerity of work and artistic will, shows that all parts of the world are bound by invisible threads, determined by laws. which fit on a single page of notebook.
Associated in the reviews of the ‘60s – ‘70s, even ‘80s, with the traditional Romanian art and with the ancestral seen as a particular of the rural, according to the cultural fashion of the times (keeping all the proportions, let’s not forget that the same label was given to Brâncuşi), George Tiutin was, is and will be the initiated artist rather than the amnesic master, using Mircea Eliade’s expression.
In other words, an exhibition that will be remembered by those for whom ceramics is something other than a medium for decorative art.



