A minimalist painting in which the entire pictorial field is occupied by variations of a single mixed grey — not a neutral grey but a specific grey derived from observing the exterior walls of a factory in Turda. The painting is a study in how much is in a colour that appears to contain nothing.
Fifteen washes were applied in total, each fractionally different in temperature and value from the previous. The painting has a luminosity that single-coat applications of grey do not produce, the accumulated layers generating an internal depth.
About the artist
Lucian Dumitrescu's paintings start from a constraint — a single colour, a single gesture, a self-imposed restriction on what materials can be used — and explore how much can be made within that constraint before it needs to be released. The minimalist works are the clearest expression of this methodology, but the same underlying logic structures even the more figurative and surrealist pieces.
He trained at the Ion Andreescu Academy of Art in Cluj and maintains his studio there. His watercolours are made on location, typically in the Transylvanian highlands, using a restricted palette mixed before leaving the studio and not augmented in the field. He accepts commissions for minimalist and landscape work.
