INTERVIEW – Visual artist Marcela Rădulescu on drawing and its subtleties

Marcela Rădulescu, artist and teacher, talks in an interview with curatorial.ro about her current exhibition in Bucharest, about the discrepancies between the artistic world in Brasov and the one in the capital, about her professional path which she characterizes as linear, about her personal studio as a delight and about the current popularity of drawing.

The exhibition “Leaded Thread/ Drawings“, curated by Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu, includes 32 works made over three decades and is open at the Scemtovici & Benowitz gallery until January 31. The exhibition for sale can be visited on Fridays and Saturdays from 14:00 to 19:00 and on Sundays from 12:00 to 16:00.

Marcela Rădulescu (b. 1942, Brasov) graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts “Ion Andreescu” in Cluj-Napoca and is an important figure in Romanian graphic art. He lives and creates in Brasov, where he has exhibited on several occasions at the Art Museum. With a rich didactic activity, he has a creative universe that is centered around the home, his own creative studio and intimate space in general, treated in a lyrical and almost transcendental key, through a very diverse visual language as a plastic approach.

Her works are related to the idea of organized structures and disorganizations, signifying the opposition, the relationship between material and spiritual life, between social reality and personal and common aspirations.
Marcelei Rădulescu’s work is highlighted by her preference for graphics, especially for drawing as an artistic practice and means of expression, by the ease with which she mixes techniques and by her refusal to be confined by stylistic dogmas, her courage to create new forms and possible meanings. She uses drawing on the open ground of experimentation and reinterpretation of the immediate, through mixed media and stylistic flexibility, she creates works that offer new perspectives on the relationship between the material and the immaterial, the organized and the disorganized.

Recently, Marcela Rădulescu was awarded by a jury of specialists of the Romanian art scene, with the second place in the “Art Movements Foundation Award for Contemporary Drawing 2024″. The awarded artwork – “The Window” – was included in the exhibition “Contemporary Drawing in Romania 2024” and is present in the current exhibition.

What led you to collaborate with a gallery in Bucharest?

Marcela Rădulescu: I think I am a curious person, interested in what is happening around me, eager to exhibit. When I found out about the exhibition-competition “Contemporary Drawing in Romania”, first edition, I thought that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like this. I had the impression that it was addressed directly to me, so I applied. I waited for the results and experienced the joy of being admitted. Don’t think I’m exaggerating, but an unknown name out of nowhere is easy to ignore. I applied for the next edition, was awarded a prize and invited to have a solo exhibition. I like to participate in group exhibitions with two or three works, not as a confrontation, but as an exchange of experience, as an opportunity to keep up to date with what colleagues you know personally, or, only from exhibitions and especially what young people are coming up with. But to do a personal exhibition, at my age, at this distance, seemed an adventure beyond my powers. Accustomed to doing everything myself, from drawing, framing, carrying, I couldn’t believe that it could be otherwise and here I am with an exhibition in Bucharest at the welcoming Scemtovici & Benowitz Gallery.

Throughout your career, what was your relationship with the capital? How do you perceive Brasov’s art scene and how do you see Bucharest’s art scene from another city?

Marcela Rădulescu: It was a normal relationship, in accordance with the times: at the beginning, we were following the national exhibitions, since our participation in them depended on our entry into the Union of Fine Artists, then we wanted confirmations, then everything seemed to collapse, the ties weakened to the point of almost disappearing, I’m talking about the branch.
Personally, I didn’t ask for anything except for the membership cards, the membership card and the one for traveling abroad, which I was given. I was waiting for UAP to organize group, national exhibitions that we could participate in, but they were not or I did not find out about them. Anyway, I felt the distancing. For a while I had an “orphan” feeling, but even an orphan has to cope. The artistic activity of UAP in Brasov is weak, far below the potential of a branch of 80 members: I’m referring to the exhibitions in the Europe gallery, managed by the branch. Fortunately, private and institutional initiatives have emerged, such as the “Artesenția” Association, which organizes the Blue Biennial, in collaboration with the City Hall of Brasov, and owns Gallery 9; the Apollonia Cultural Bank has opened, with attractive spaces, but with reduced opening hours due to lack of staff, and the Transylvania Multicultural Centre, with a beautiful hall and quality management. I should also mention the Inspiratio gallery with a small and cozy room, with a program also focused on sales.
The new management of the Art Museum Brasov has tried to enliven the institution, the artistic guild and attract the public. In Brasov, there is no such thing as a gallery owner and the institution of the art critic is totally absent. Of course, after the rather impoverished picture of Brasov, Bucharest seems well launched into another orbit: many private galleries, auction houses, art fairs, private museums, art magazines, many good new artists, which unfortunately I can’t even follow with my poor digital skills. Another world.

What were the criteria for creating this exhibition?

Marcela Rădulescu: You are of course referring to the curatorial concept and this belongs to Ms. Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu, with the mention that she had a small number of works to choose from. If we were closer to allowing a dute-vino between the studio and the gallery, perhaps the exhibition would have looked different. Then the time shortened, or shortened, and because of my hesitations. Compared to my taste, which is more classical, to be more indulgent with myself, which implies works more related to each other, more from the same family, Mrs. Demetrescu introduced breaks of rhythm, perhaps “surprises”, through different techniques, works from different eras. I didn’t want a retrospective and I hope it doesn’t have that character.

Among others, the series “Signs for Unremembrance” caught my attention, in which you refer to events such as the 1989 Revolution and the World Trade Center attacks. How did this series of works come about and how many pieces does it comprise? Is it a work in progress?

Marcela Rădulescu: This “mini series” I made in the wake of my work with braids and knots, graphic marks that I have kind of abandoned. As a “subject”, my permanent preoccupation with the “happening of the day”, the “reality of the moment”, is a constant thread that links my entire production.
From this perspective, the three works are part of a series of images that follow and remind me of the history I have lived. These three “events” – the Revolution, the Twin Towers, the tsunami of 2004 – made a deep impression on me and I felt that they had to be recorded, fixed in memory. I was looking for a code, a coherent and recognizable support. I was reminded of the ‘knot writing’ that I read about in a book on the art of writing, without remembering to this day which culture it belongs to, which geographical area or historical epoch. I set to work, and when I finished I realized that it was probably more natural to design them vertically. I decided to redo them, but even to this day I have not given myself the time and strength to do them, other subjects have come up, other urgencies have taken over, their time is gone and I am not in a position to force myself. But they are close to my heart. Yes, from a story point of view, it is a project in progress proven with everything I have worked on since, even if appearances can deceive.

How would you describe your career path? What was the key moment in your career?

Marcela Rădulescu: The best and true description is linear path and I know what I’m talking about, I just work with the line. My professional activity, i.e. from which I earned my living, was as a drawing teacher at an art high school, which was fortunate because it left me time for my studio. My second luck was that I had a studio. So, two important conditions. Among the vicissitudes inherent in life I slipped in like everyone else, and they were not few. In artistic activity, my straight line was to break, I remember, around the age of 40, probably the years of the great crises. I considered that I hadn’t done anything noteworthy, that I had to make a decision, to stop and take another path. But I succeeded with some works with which I agreed, with which I had two exhibitions, one in Bucharest and the other in Brasov. Since then, my artistic “career” has followed an even straighter line, one of those drawn with a ruler, with events, but not noteworthy. The second inflection could be now…? Let’s not say it’s all over.

How have your technique and approach changed over the years?

Marcela Rădulescu: In the beginning, after graduating, I was in love with printmaking: metal, lino, xilo and especially litho, for which the Graphic Art department in Cluj was well equipped. When I came back to Brasov, I tried to set up a specialized workshop, but I couldn’t find any supporters. There was a litho press in a colleague’s workshop, but it was not accessible to everyone, then I got a flat one, but not the space, so I equipped the high school with it and from then on I did everything in my workshop, with a spoon. It got too hard and I switched to drawing. That was the moment of great doubts. Since then I never left it and it gave me the greatest satisfaction. You see, I’m not talking about successes, because there weren’t any, but about pleasure, love of work, love of the studio!

How often do you work now? What do you prefer to draw with – ink, charcoal, pencil? What is currently your favorite subject?

Marcela Rădulescu: I work every day or, more correctly, I go to the studio every day except Sunday. I go with a work in mind, a project, a series of works on the same subject or theme. In the happy case, they also dictate my technique, or I try one or the other until it comes together. Then, if I’ve choked on too much charcoal I switch to pen, pencil, pastel and with great pleasure to colored pencils. Out of didactic necessity I have agreed with my students that “theme = plastic theme” i.e. line, dot, spot, stain, contrast, texture etc., and “story = subject”. I see that I fail to subordinate the subject to the plastic theme. I am dominated by the story, and the story that I have delved into, perhaps too deeply, is now called “The Workshop”. I hope to outgrow it and if someone were to casually ask me “what do you do?” I could talk about issues such as value contrast, size, color, eccentric compositions and a host of other “delights”.

Have you faced gender discrimination in a male-dominated profession?

Marcela Rădulescu: I really never felt disadvantaged. Maybe if I was competing for jobs, promotions, positions, etc. But because I was never attracted by these issues, I was interested in totally different areas, I was spared from the phenomenon. I had my own things to contend with on the shop floor; my own weaknesses, my own shortcomings, my own techniques that didn’t work. I prefer to divide people into good and bad, hardworking and lazy, clever and stupid, honest and dishonest and all the variables.

Why do you think drawing is not as popular as painting and sculpture?

Marcela Rădulescu: Drawing serves everyone and they limit themselves to sketches that they throw away afterward. Few have the patience to finalize their idea and discover the expressiveness and subtleties of drawing. Then there’s the market, the price, I don’t know what… But I would point out to all of them that they are losing a lot.