Dimitrie Gavrilean - about the artist

DIMITRIE GAVRILEAN

Despre autor

Dimitrie Gavrilean da corp plasic unei “cosmogonii romanesti, bazate pe descifrarea miturilor populare, reintroduse acum intr-un sistem de cifru, vizual de asta data si personal, nu colectiv, dar descinzind din Evul Mediu romanesc.“

Ion Frunzetti, “In cautarea traditiei”, Ed. Meridiane 1998

“Gavrilean creaza ample compozitii narative, în care cuprinde viata unui sat cu traditiile si obiceiurile lui, aducînd numeroase personaje în variate atitudini, dar toate participînd la aceeasi bogata viata sociala.”

Petru Comarnescu

“Coboritor din lumea de legenda a Voronetului natal, Dimitrie Gavrilean aduce în pictura fantasticul basmelor si credintelor populare, fantasticul pe care il stapineste cu mijloacele unei picturi riguros organizate. Incarcata de simboluri pictura lui Gavrilen este o antologie a intelepciunii populare transpusa in mit, intelepciune, pe care fantasmele si eresurile o ameninta dar nu reusesc sa o surpe.“

Vasile Dragut

“Artistul are un simt profund al ansamblului, arhitectura compozitionala are o forta netagaduita, fara sa respinga anecdota el o supune rigorilor unei constructii intemeiate, ca in renasterea olandeza, pe o geometrie disimulata. E o lume a miraculosului si alta a realului contopite intr-o viziune coloristica plina de farmec.”

Dan Grigorescu

“Gavrilean misterios talent venit de la Iasi, invaluit in trena acelei literaturi mirifice pe care noi o cunoastem foarte bine, subliniata in aceste extraordinare tablouri de care nu ne-am mai saturat privindu-le. Un mare pictor, cum am spus înca de la început.”

Eugen Barbu

Densitatea materiilor colorante suprapuse intr-o indelungata si rabdurie aplecare de care s-ar fi parut ca numai artistii evului de mijloc ar fi fost in stare, formeaza un fel de semi-intunecata, la prima vedere, cortina acoperind intrarea in acele tuneluri ducind spre timpurile trecute cum se dovedeste a fi lucrarile lui Dimitrie Gavrilean. Atragind privirea cu intensitate, cortinele se ridica incet, incet, dar nu ca o pinza trasa in sus, ci ca un abur risipindu-se pe nesimtite, descoperind privelisti neasteptate in care filtreaza o lumina din alte tarimuri, izvorind dintr-un straniu soare intunecat ce reuseste sa lumineze cu alburi stralucitoare colturi tainice din ceea ce ar fi parut monocromii aproape total inchise. Trecerile de tonuri, aproape insesizabile, silesc privirile sa lunece pe nevrute, centimetru cu centimetru, descoperind fragmente de sine statatoare dar legate solidar intr-un univers misterios, saturat de forme care participa la intimplari ce te trag tot mai mult spre adincuri. Fascinatia tablourilor lui Gavrilean decurge nu numai din marele mestesug al artistului ci si poate mai ales din arcanele gindirii sale profunde atintite asupra unei imagini unitare a lumii. Articulatiile acestei lumi nestiute sint relevante cu sfiala patrunderii in taine ce se cuvin spuse in lumina si cu voce tare, ci infatisate pe-ndelete, solemn, pazind reguli ale unor ritualuri niciodata pe de-a-ntregul dezvaluite. Pas cu pas te afunzi in trecutul nu al istoriei, ci al trans-realitatii elaborate de fantezia stratului arhaic al mentalitatii populare europene. Operele lui Dimitrie Gavrilean se situeaza dincolo de folclor, inteles azi din ce in ce mai conventional si golit in fapt de substanta sa vie, ele plasindu-se in orizontul conceptual al gindirii medievale mijinde fiind, într-un fel, replica, peste secole, a celor intruchipate pe zidurile ctitoriilor din stralucitul trecut pictural moldovenesc, integrate si ele, la vremea lor, in gindirea evului mediu european de coloratura rasariteana. Vechimea stratului de gindire in care evolueaza forta expresiva a pictorului descinzind din Voronetul secolului al XX-lea (oare numai stranie coincidenta?) se citeste chiar si in acel alb al straielor personajelor sale, confundate cu nota “folclorica” romaneasca, uitindu-se ca acel alb - camasa barbateasca si valurile femeilor erau comune vestimentatiei europene din anume vechi epoci. Tabourile lui Gavrilean sint receptate pe data si in semnificatia lor totala de privitori fie ei si apuseni, care nu le atribuie intelesuri pictoresti folclorizante, localizate sa zicem in sud-estul Europei, ci dimpotriva, le asuma ca expresie a imaginii mundane general-europene. Ele “graiesc” într-un limbaj general-omenesc despre intimplari ale unei lumi ce continua sa traiasca pina azi in gindirea colectiva a popoarelor europene. Intarite, fireste, de-a lungul secolelor, de relatarile si interpretarile livresti, dar recufundate in zestrea nestearsa a amintirii comune. “Sfatul înteleptilor” sau “Sfatul nebunilor”, imbarcate in carute zburatoare ce pot veni sau pot pleca, simbolizind in fond trecerea timpului, ca si "Arca vazduhului” din Autoportret, sint imagini pe deplin intelese tocmai in partea lor de aura misterioasa. Ceremonia nuntii, Vinatoarea rituala, Secerisul miraculos, Semanatul miraculos, Cintarea Cintarilor sint momente metaforice ale unei experiente umane ancestrale, uneori transfigurate de mituri poetice izvorite din aceeasi experienta, repovestite cu harul coloristic al unui contemporan al nostru. Intoarcerea spre trecut este a unei constiinte artistice acut moderne resimtind nevoia certitudinilor decantate de-a lungul veacurilor, poezia fantasticului fiind una dintre acestea. In vazduhul consistent al tablourilor lui Gavrilean, consistent pina a parea scoarta pamintului insasi, plutesc si misuna nefiinte în formare, se nasc mereu iasme parelnice, prefapturi ce pot deveni orice, inconjurind omul senin-uimit sau extatic, de cele mai multe ori in grup, oficiind. Lumea vazduhului este suspendata, satele oamenilor reali, nevazuti, fiind pierdute pe linia zarii cele mai de jos. Este o inversare a vazduhului si realului, disparind la marginea tabloului si a lumii. Imaginile se cheama una pe alta intr-o inseriere ce îndeamna la o continua descoperire, fantezia poetica extraordinara a lui Dimitrie Gavrilean generind nu spaima, ci libertate de miscare si de gindire intr-o lume creata de puterile mintii omenesti.

Paul Petrescu, “Arcade in timp”, 1987

About the artist

"Dimitrie Gavrilean confers a plastic body to a "Romanian cosmogony" based on the deciphering of people's myths, re-introduced now in a cipher system, visual of prescribed art and personnel at the same time, not collective one, but descending from the Romanian Middle Ages."

Ion Frunzetti, "In the tradition search", Meridiane Publishing House, 1998

"Gavrilean creats ample narrative compositions in which he includes the life of a village with its customs and traditions, offering numerous characters of various attitudes, but all of them taking part in the same rich social life."

Petru Comarnescu

"Descending from the legend world of Voronet where he was born, Dimitrie Gavrilean brings into painting the fancifulness of folk tales and beliefs, which he masters by means of a rigorously organized painting. Charged by symbols Gavrilean's painting is an anthology of the people's wisdom transposed into myth and wisdom which phantoms and superstitions threaten but do not succeed to destroy it."

Vasile Dragut

"The artist has a profound sense of the ensemble, the composing architecture possesses an incontestable force, without rejecting the anecdote he submits it to the rigorously of a well-formed construction, as in the Dutch Renaissance, on a dissimulated geometry. It is a world of the miracle and another one of the reality merged into a full of charm chromatic vision."

Dan Grigorescu

“Gavrilean, a mysterious talent, arrived from Iasi wrapped up by the train of that wonderful literature which we know very well, underlined in these extraordinary paintings that I did not cease in beholding them. A great painter, as I have already told, from the beginning."

Eugen Barbu

The density of paints superposed with patience worthy of the medieval artists forms, at first sight, a semi-dark curtain hiding the entrance to the tunnels leading to ancient times - as Dimitrie Gavrilean's works appear. Strongly capturing the viewer's look, the curtains are going up slowly, like vapour dissipating without notice thus revealing unexpected views in which a light from other worlds filters, radiating from a strange sun which can lighten, by means of shining white, mysterious corners of what might have had the appearance of complete dark monochromies. The insensible transition from one tone to another forces the eye to explore willy-nilly each and every inch of the painting, discovering fragments put together in a mysterious universe saturated with forms which participate in something that drags you more and more to the bottom. The fascination exerted by Gavrilean's paintings comes not only from their great artistry but also from his deep arcane thinking aiming at a unitary image of the world. The joints of this unknown world are shown with the shy understanding of secrets worth whispering gradually and solemnly revealed while guarding rituals never to be completely understood. Little by little you sink in the past of trans-reality elaborated by the fantasy of the archaic layer of the traditional European mentality. Dimitrie Gavrilean's paintings find themselves beyond the folklore which is looked upon more and more conventionally and emptied of its live substance; they are to be found in the conceptual area of the medieval thinking. In a way, they are the replica over the centuries of the frescoes painted on the walls of the buildings erected during the glorious Moldavian past integrated in their turn into the thinking of the European Middle Age of eastern stamp. The age of the layer of thinking in which the painter's expressive force develops , descending from the XXth century Voronetz (a mere strange coincidence?) can be traced even in the white of the clothes worn by his characters, which is most often mistaken for a Romanian folk feature. When this happens, people forget that the white, the long white man shirt and the woman veils were garments common to Europeans from certain old times. No matter who the viewers are, Romanians or western Europeans, they all can understand the significance of Dimitrie Gavrilean's paintings since they ascribe to them a general meaning as an expression of the whole mundane European image. The painter's works speak in a universal human language about happenings belonging to a world which continues to live in the collective way of thinking of the European peoples. The happenings are reinforced over the centuries by retellings and "livresque" interpretations supplied at the same time by the common memory. "The Gathering of the Wise" or "The Gathering of the Mad" in flying carts symbolizing time passing, "The "Arch of the Sky" from "Self-portrait" are images to be fully understood even in their mysterious aura. "The Wedding", "The Ritual Hunting", "The Miraculous Sowing", "The Miraculous Harvest" , " Song of the Songs " are metaphorical moments of an old human experience sometimes transfigured by the poetic myths coming from the same experience, rendered through the gift of colour of a contemporary of ours. The return to the ancient times is done by a modern artist who feels the urge for decanted certainties over the centuries, and the poetry of the fantastic is one of these certainties. In the sky painted by Gavrilean, a sky as consistent as the earth itself, creatures float and entities that can turn into anything surround ecstatic people gathered in large groups , officiating. The universe of the sky is suspended, while the villages of the real people, who cannot be seen, are lost somewhere in the distance. It is an inversion of the sky and the earth which disappears where the painting ends and the real world begins. The images come one after another in a row which claims for a never ending investigation; Dimitrie Gavrilean's outstanding imagination generates no fear but freedom of movement and thought in a world created by the force of the human mind.

Paul Petrescu - "Archways through Time", 1987