TAMARA ANTAL

Valentin Ciucă

Tamara Antal – Privileges of memory

The intellectual and emotional impact force of exhibition “Beyond present time” signed by Tamara Antal, derives from the substance of dialogue between material marks of traditional culture and the need of today’s man to inscribe into the horizon of modernity along with all his values that once belonged to an exciting utopical past. In other words, we cannot move forward unless we are looking back. The present itself embeds, through memory, elements of ancient civilizations which send us over the time, some of the most exciting messages. After all, it all adds up to the absolute and the old traces frequently come into the open and confess anthropologically about the human being and its sacred nature.

Somewhat surprised by the wonderful things discovered in grandmother’s glory box, without any backward-looking nostalgia, she reasserts the values into some modern cultural contexts. This necessary and suggestive exercise of admiration towards the universe of humble objects in their simplicity, which played however a vital role in the existence and purpose of man, is substantiated on the accuracy of affective memory and it triggers states of exultation. And moreover of respect. The universe of apparently humble objects is thus naturally recomposed, with rakishly spontaneity and even playful delight. The quality of these material marks consists of immediate usefulness, but also of their almost involuntary aesthetics which renders beauty to functional. To explore this universe of usefulness potentiates in fact the traits of Romanian peasant having access to metaphysics. To think tales is not just an inspired metaphor, but also a way of referring ourselves to eternity by means of transitoriness.

Tamara Antal has a remarkable imaginative power and an amazing force of association. The universe of objects inspires her and guides her artistic steps towards great compositions the originality of which communicates beyond present’s limitations, both to the ancient and the recent stressful man. The idea of sacredness becomes a constituent of every composition, a part of the discourse which, by ideational and plastic coherence generates spontaneous solidarities. The association within aesthetical space of the object-picture, determines the relation to trigger multiple possibilities of perception according to the cultural and visual experience of each beholder. The inostensible grandeur of great compositions consists of new implications which the artist conveys to the objects almost forgotten and then brought to a new life, other than the strictly utilitarian one. They become in the artist’s vision the elements of a definite imprint which develop like giant steps in the sand of time or on canvas of memory. The tracks of time agglutinate the elements of rural universe but also the generic faces of some long gone beings, yet unforgotten. The impression of an icon cannot by any means be ignored.

The backgrounds of compositions are most frequently marked by the vigorously touch lines, almost gesturally used by the artist in order to suggest the dynamic background in which are inserted the elements of domestic, utilitarian universe, nimbed by the anonymous touch of our ancestors. In fact, each work represents a genuine praise brought to those who discretely and distinctly forged the space of intimacy and usefulness. Everything bears the greatness of simplicity and the perpetuity of temporariness. Tamara Antal transforms the consideration for the past into a way of being and a strategy of creation. Her great compositions bear the tension of emotion and the shudder of beauty. The modernity resides in vision and the reclaiming of the past not so much lost as forgotten, emphasizes an impeccable form of consideration. According to the technique of collage, great towels skilfully embroidered deploy vertically such as a demonstration of virtuosity and harmony of forms and colours with an absolute decorative impact. Pieces of household inventory enter the dialogue with other types of cultural context, over the time, and we stand in full delight as witnesses to the show of fecund aesthetic filiations.

Tamara Antal possesses the art of making cultural archaeology and redesigns possible images of what might have been, out of disparate fragments, as a preview to what will be. The intelligence is associated to a trained pictorial handiness while the lack of prejudices renders the freedom of the modern associative spirit. The power of her visions does not exclude though the fineness of some reactions of humbleness towards the ancestors who accomplished perennial art without even knowing it… Unanimously considered a real success, her present gesture bears the significance of an eloquent professionalism.

Tamara Antal, Romania

http://tamipaint.mdasarl.com/