nicolae

Beach culture in Bercsényi

Berceni is a district (quarter, cartier in Romanian) of Bucharest . The hussars of Bercsényi were first mentioned after the suppression of the Hungarian Kuruc War led by Francis II Rákóczi (at beginning of the 18th century). They settled in the neighborhood of Bucharest. The 4th district of Bucharest is located in the southern part of the capital city, at 26° 5'45'' eastern longitude, 44° 24'49" northern latitude. 25 km2 of its total 32 km2 is built-up area (capital's total is 228 km2), and it has a population of 335,000 out of the capital's 2,027,512.

If we take the density of the population, the 4th district exceeds some of the economically most important municipalities like Bacau (population: 209,689), Brasov (317,772), Braila (234,648), Craiova (312,891), Oradea (223.288), Ploiesti (253.414), Râmnicu-Vâlcea (119.340), Târgu Mures (165,534), and it is a little beyond Constanta (344,876), Cluj-Napoca (332,792), Galati (331,360), Iasi (348,399) and Timisoara (334,098). Primaria sectorului 4

In his paintings Nicolae Comanescu makes the switch from the flâneur to the beachcomber.

A COMPILATION OF CITYSCAPES BY NICOLAE COMANESCU


This is an exhibition with cityscapes and about common city trademarks.
It is an exhibition with paintings literally resulting out of a mix of different city perspectives. The perspectives of the city dweller such as you and me, of Nicolae Comanescu the city artist, of everybody who enjoys an active live in the middle of a modern metropolis such as Bucharest, New York, London, Berlin or Paris.

We have always painted, bought, exhibited paintings with city-inspired subjects or city-forged ideas; in fact it is impossible not to notice or depict the presence of our immediate architectural surroundings. Still, this time Nicolae Comanescu creates a kaleidoscopic urban mix uniting inside a single frame the actual and the past city, the cinematic and the future city. Nicolae’s exhibition is part of a larger trend that identifies the city as the major influence in image-production. We invest in our daily life in the city that surrounds us, while we help create its outer signs – neon signs, huge advertising billboards and lettered messages announcing new trends, labels and popular icons.
The city is more than a background while we go about our daily job routines, while we invest into our future prosperity. The city abounds in many shapes and colors and inspires its citizens with its ever-expanding energies. Inside the city art has become concrete reality; architectural blueprints, constructive ideas are shaped into visible, tangible, habitable bureau’s, flats, homes, hotels and cinema’s. Inside the city art has rediscovered its entertainment value.
Nicolae Comanescu’s paintings exhibit the omnipresence of the city and the need for its facilities and modern delights.
The biggest and heaviest entertainment producers such as the cinema and the video game industry also proclaim the presence of the city; the place where the film studio’s and the actor’s homes are at, the place where the postproduction lab and game designers daily universe is based. It is beyond all a world familiar to all of us. A place so familiar that we feel it’s natural to see it in our homes, in our working places and on our screens.

In the end Nicolae Comanescu’s paintings act as re-combinatory windows.
Mirroring the city, these paintings offer glimpses as to the modern planetary city, spanning over the whole earth. These cities are the direct result of common aims, common traits and hundreds of years of constructing the first social and political global centers.
The lavish chic interiors and the general passion for fast, slick and smart car designs is well known to us. Car designs and prize motorcycle models always offer us a view of the future cities. The curves and Fiberglas materials are all the testing sites of future developments influencing both architecture and/or the newfound comfort of the home appliance industry. Fordism and post-Fordism still remains a styling index as to our most prized goods and these paintings are proudly and joyfully declaring the visual preeminence of hot rods and upswept tail fins in our shopping culture.

Cities are vertical growing structures with ever-expanding margins, and Nicolae Comanescu’s paintings reach out over the horizon, enabling a 360 degree rotation; a free turning in search of new vistas. This should be the representation of free enterprise in action searching for new markets and the jagged graphics of the monetary index.

STEFAN TIRON (from GRAND PRIX REMIX exhibition catalog).
Grand Prix Remix (Visual Shampoo Consumer Product _ mid city shower version ), curator Stefan Tiron, , National Museum of Contemporary Art, Etaj 3/4 Gallery, Bucharest, Romania, 2004.