ALEXANDRU RĂDVAN: Warm Skin: Altes Bampfbad, Marktplatz 13, 76530 Baden-Baden

August 2 - 18, 2024 Anaid Art Gallery Baden-Baden
In the work of the artist Alexandru Rădvan the body is seen in various positions, states, contexts and situations, describing a pleasure of desire, of touching, of the act itself. Designed on the binomial "nude/nudity" and "naked/nakedness", the exhibition "Warme Haut/Warm Skin" continues the concerns of recent years regarding the body, the desires and the intimacy of passionate-reflexive moments. The works are circumscribed in an area representing a personal narrative, a kind of intimate diary, where the viewer becomes a self-contained voyeur in the pictorial context. The large, big painting – over 3 meters - "6 A.M.", conceived as a panoramic image, represents a moment of peace, tranquility, and sensual communication between two beings as if situated out of time and space. The pleasure of touching, the tactile feeling, the sensation induced by reverie and laziness confer a degree of sumptuousness, which does not lack reminders of mythological scenes and nudes represented in the history of universal art.
The artist testified to this new series of paintings and drawings: "The scent of your skin, the warmth of mine. The words of our endless small talk, the long silent moments. My fingers in your hair, eyes half closed and two drops of sweat. All monumental and unforgettable".
The representation of the body suggests something both physical and imaginary; this leads to the idea that "bodily integrity" is not all material; it also has an immaterial side, an absent presence, turning the body into a concept. Paul Schilder and Elaine Scarry consider that when we talk about bodies, these cannot be limited only to skin; they also incorporate the external things in our image, thus expanding the self. Should we look at the drawings from the "Skin" series from this angle, where the characters are often represented sleeping or in a semi-awake state, the body has a sexual charge enhanced by the idea of ​​eroticism and fragility.
The exhibition "Warme Haut/Warm Skin" is about eroticism, touching, the pleasure of being together, about memories, wishes, forgotten things and why not, about love in a state of daydreaming. Daydream love is perhaps the most sincere and warm form of love.
Curator: Diana Dochia