Abstract art Romul Nuțiu

Romul Nuțiu (July 28, 1932 – April 5, 2012)was one of the most constant artists dedicated to Abstraction from the Romanian art scene. Even though he had not left the country to work abroad along his life, his international career has tremendously risen since 2008, when he started a fruitful collaboration with Dr. Joana Grevers, art dealer and historian based in Munich, Germany.
Son of a forester and a housewife from Bilbor, Harghita, Nuțiu attended the primary school from Cașva village, Mures county in 1938. In 1940, following the Dictate from Wien, he takes refuge in Blaj and settles in Reghin, in 1941, where he graduated the Pedagogical High School 'Petru Maior' in the end of the 40s.
From 1951 to 1957, he studied at the Fine Arts Institute 'Ion Andreescu' in Cluj, with the professors Petru Feier and Teodor Harsia. Leon Vreme, Paul Sima, Mircea Balau, Vasile Pop Szilagy, Alexandru Cristea, Edwin Solomon and Sofia Kryzanowska were among his colleagues.

The relation to Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel is best described by the artist: 'In 1957, when I graduated, my belief was strictly connected to the idea that the perception of things is rather important for the creation act, but being limited, one has to appeal to the subconscious through experiment, challenge and transcendence. My informal was born from hard work and devotion. At that moment, I knew few things about contemporary art, and what I learned in school was just some academic knowledge that was only partially useful. Later on, when I started to travel, I came in contact with the European informal. In the big museums I found out that my way was somehow synchronized, having a polarity to what I was seeing. Abstract expressionism and the European informal made me understand that I have to keep my own authenticity and sensitivity

 Periods and Styles of Nutiu’s oeuvre Following Nutiu’s oeuvre through the decades helped to define the different stages of his artistic unfolding. The first steps towards abstraction were the modular compositions from the early 60s, all of which were paintings on canvas. At the same time he also created objects called assemblage, by using different canvases stuck on each other which created a three dimensional effect. Nutiu was always tempted to expand his works beyond the canvas, by leaving the bi-dimensionality. He referred to the works of this period as Utopias. After composing these objects he returned to painting and began a theme called Dynamic Universe; these paintings were made in the 1970s. In this period Nutiu got the idea to build several vessels with dimensions of about 160x160 cm having a depth of 10 cm, which he filled with water and industrial paints that were usually used to paint cars. These colours could not be absorbed by the water, and floated by their own inertia creating unforeseen shapes. The artist influenced those shapes by intervening with a bar until he liked the outcome. Subsequently he arranged a canvas on the water’s surface.

The canvas absorbed the paint composition which was a moment earlier in the water. Generally the canvas was covered entirely of these "risky effects" produced in print. In some cases Nutiu intervened with a few brushstrokes or he erased some areas
The very innovative object in space "Sapte forme pictate" (means seven painted shapes) from 1969 was also achieved with this technology transfer in water, while some areas have been painted over. In the 1980s Nutiu was inspired by vegetal structures, especially roots and he subsequently labelled this phase of his artistic production as Sections through Fertile Soil. This title clearly reveals that his abstract works were inspired by nature. Further to this title he was also a passionate fly fisherman and he confessed that the roots of the plants and trees he observed on the other side of the shore inspired him. In the 1990s Nutiu entitled his body of work Beyond Appearances. The paintings became more graphic and symbolical which is evidenced seen in the artwork Blue Universe from 1999. The paintings were of course abstract and in the 1990s extremely colourful, sometimes colour spots surrounded by a line like a cloisonné. At the end of the 1990s he was attracted by water - running in rivers or falling in cascades and until the early 2000s he was extremely engaged with this subject. In the last years of his life Nutiu returned to his earlier themes, one of which was Sections through Fertile Soil. For Romul Nutiu the source of inspiration is especially the plant, its stem and root, as it feeds from the soil and returns fertility to it and in this permanent struggle for survival it is akin to man.He re-explored painting the element of water as he had done at the beginning of the 2000s. Wikipedia