Constantin Severin

founder and promoter of archetypal expressionism

News

November282016

The Archetypal Expressionism at the Brukenthal National Museum

I’m very happy to share with the art lovers my solo show from the newest Museum of Contemporary Art in Romania, founded in 2014, which belongs to the most prestigious and the oldest art museum in South-Eastern Europe, founded 200 years ago, the National Brukenthal Museum, in Sibiu.

http://www.brukenthalmuseum.ro/index2.php/ro/detail/394

This amazing event, a turning point in my career as a visual artist, was possible after the decision of a national jury, formed by art historians and critics, curators, art experts from the Academic world and members of the the Brukenthal museum staff, who selected last year my art project. Many thanks to all of them.

The opening of my solo show, entitled ‘’The Signs of Time. Archetypal Energies’’, was  on October 12th , 2016, at 5 pm, EET and the art loverr had the chance to  admire, until the 20th of November, 27 of my oil on canvas paintings and the the unique bifrons painting/installation, ‘’Janus’’.
The curator of my exhibition was the visual artist Robert Strebeli, the chief of the Heritage Conservation Department from the National Brukenthal Museum and the presentation text in the catalogue is signed by the art historian and critic Iulia Mesea, curator at the same art museum.

March062016

A work for the Lavacow Spring Auction Event

One of my recent artworks, Text and Time 109, oil on canvas, 40×50 cm, 2015, was accepted for the Lavacow Spring Auction 2016, on the 29th of March, 2016, 8 pm, EEST.

http://lavacow.com/current-auctions/the-lavacow-spring-auction/text-and-time-109.html

This work belongs to my successful monochrome series, in yellow and red, entitled ”Hierarchy of Light”. In 2013 I had a solo show of monochrome painting, with the same title, at Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest:

One of my artworks for the Lavacow Spring Auction

2 Votes

 

Text and Time 109, oil on canvas, 40x50 cm, 2015

Text and Time 109, oil on canvas, 40×50 cm, 2015

One of my recent artworks, Text and Time 109, oil on canvas, 40×50 cm, 2015, was accepted for the Lavacow Spring Auction 2016, on the 29th of March, 2016, 8 pm, EEST.

http://lavacow.com/current-auctions/the-lavacow-spring-auction/text-and-time-109.html

This work belongs to my successful monochrome series, in yellow and red, entitled ”Hierarchy of Light”. In 2013 I had a solo show of monochrome painting, with the same title, at Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest:

 

The art lovers may already give bids to my work and to many other amazing works by some of the best Romanian contemporary artists, like Corneliu Baba, Horia Bernea, Ovidiu Maitec, Mircea Suciu, Natalia Dumitresco, Marcel Iancu, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Saul Steinberg, Vladimir Şetran, Ştefan Pelmuş, Ion Mândrescu, Florica Prevenda, etc. or to very known international artists like Fernand Leger, Marc Chagall, Andy Warhol, Jean Tinguely, Shepard Fairey, Damien Hirst, etc. I encourage all the worldwide art lovers and my friends from abroad to buy Romanian art, it’s a very profitable investment in a moment when the art market in Bucharest is very low (for example my work, Text and Time 109, was valued last year at 3,000-5,000 $ by Atelier Auction, Singapore) and the Romanian masters experience a very difficult period.

To view the online live auction you have to log in to your account at the time of the auction. If you want to place bids you have to fill in your Account Information with the mandatory Auction Settings. A 12% buyer’s premium applies on top of the hammer price.

Lavacow is the first international auction house from Romania, Bucharest, dedicated especially to the Emerging European Art.

December102015

A Challenge: to Study Fiction at Iowa Writers Workshop

Last month I have graduated University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop, a cutting edge course dedicated to fiction, more precisely the art of writing good novels. I have enjoyed it very much and my final profile can prove this statement: 95% (writing assignments, quizzes, and reviews), 29 discussion contributions and 12 peer reviews.

It was an awesome and delightful experience, our instructors being two successful writers, Christopher Merril (IWP Director and University of Iowa Professor of English) and Angela Flournoy (her debut novel, The Turner House, was nominated during our course on the shortlist for the National Book Award), who invited many guest writers/featured authors from all over the world, like Paul Harding, Venise Berry, Edward Carey, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Bernice Chauly, Susan Taylor Chehak, Boris Fishman, Angela Flournoy, Paul Harding, Boaz Gaon, Andrew Sean Greer, Naomi Jackson, Leslie Jamison, Mamle Kabu, Jonathan Lethem, Margot Livesy, Stephen Lovely, Peter Orner, and Douglas Trevor, among others, who shared with us useful tips and memories related to the process of writing novels. To learn and debate on the intimate mechanisms of writing novels is a fruitful experience for any writer.

The course structure was composed by 7 class sessions: Starting with Character, Expanding on Character: Cast and Dialogue, Working with Plot, Using Character to Produce Frame and Arc, Voice and Setting, Immersion in Setting: Description and World-Building and Embracing Revision. Each week, a team of teaching moderators, all MFA graduates with substantial writing and teaching experience, started discussions of the topics and the challenges of the writing assignments. Community moderators actively supported the participation of writers who were new to writing fiction, and/or writing as non-native speakers of English. These community moderators facilitated the formation of writing groups and supported the vitality and inclusivity of a true international writing community. I have joined the workshop in a difficult creation period as a writer, while working at my second novel- in- progress, “The Stranger of Ada Kaleh’’ (counting almost 8 months since I was not capable to write a single word!), but finally I surpassed the moment at Iowa Writers Workshop and for the first time in my life I wrote fiction in English…

Many thanks to my new friends and fellows, reviewers of my assignments, who transformed this wonderful experience into a crucial moment for my intellectual life: Slim FitzGerald, Linda Masi, Ann Godrige, Ray Busler, Marianne Moran, Peggy Duffy, Chris Coen, Mimi Mellman, Tricia Wagner, Eric Meyer, Lauren Bello, Che Sing, Ismaila Yahaya Kana, etc.

 

October152015

Guest artist of the National Literature Festival ”George Bacovia”

Constantin Severin was a guest artist of the National Literature Festival ”George Bacovia”, Bacău, Romania in the period 7-10 October, 2015.

The opening ceremony was attended by over 90 cultural personalities from Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The solo show ”Archetypal Energies” was presented by the art critics Iulian Bucur and Lucian Strochi.

The special guest of the event was  Eva Cirnu, consultant for communication and image for the Dalai Lama government in exile.

May172015

My art is promoted by Atelier Auction from Singapore

 

I’m thrilled to announce that after Lavacow, Bucharest, my art is promoted by another international auction house, Atelier Auction, from Singapore.

http://www.atelierauction.com/artists/constantin_severin.html

Atelier Auction is a relatively new online auctioneer in the South-east Asia auction industry, founded in 2013 by a young entrepreneur, Adrian Tang, Executive Director of Empire Group Holding, who became one of the fans of my art.
Empire Group Holding have managed more than 800 successful projects, both in Governmental and Private sectors, building upon a reputation in the industry as an accomplished Builder, Entrepreneur, Innovator and lastly, Mentor to many others. As an Investment Company, its main role is to acquire and establish companies related to Information Technology and currently held more than 30 unique brands and equities.

The launch date of the upcoming auction is on 19th of May, and this
auction event will be lasting for a month till 19th of June, so the bidders will have a total month to bid for their favorite artwork(s).

http://www.atelierauction.com/home/

Don Leon, Art Coordinator of Atelier Auction selected 4 of my artworks for this auction event: ’’I chose your artwork because I see the traits of your artwork have good potential to sell in the Contemporary art market, you have a very unique exotic style of what you called archetypal expressionism. It is very decorative kind of flat image which combines great analogous colors with various beautiful textures. I would praise you as a very well-established artist.’’

The artists’ portfolio of Atelier Auction international auction house is really impressive, with 23 outstanding artists from China, many of them belonging to a top art university, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (in the past five years, the staff members won hundreds of top national prizes), two artists from Singapore, another two artists from India, one from Malaysia, one from Australia, one from Venezuela, one from Dubai and another 6 artists from Europe ( Italy, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain, Slovenia and Poland ).http://www.atelierauction.com/artists.html

It’s really amazing to be promoted for the first time on the Asian art market, in my opinion my new awarded art concept/movement, the archetypal expressionism, is fitted to the old values of the Oriental Art.

March142015

Archetypal Expressionism Group’s art site

Probably the best international visual artists who represent the new awarded art concept/movement, Archetypal Expressionism, are now together in a virtual art gallery:

http://archetypalexpressionism.com/

I hope this conceptual art group will be a challenge for the international art market and for possible major art investors, who could transform the project into a cutting edge art gallery.

Worldwide art lovers, collectors, gallerists, art museums and curators can extend their research to other important international visual artists who shared the values of Archetypal Expressionism: Hussein Salim (Sudan/Canada), Carla Lensen (Netherlands), BIBI (Nigeria/Dubai), Susanne Iles (Ireland), Donald L. Conover (USA), Paola Gonzalez (Mexic), Kerryn Madsen-Pietsch (Australia), Tracey Tawhiao and Tepora Watene (New Zealand), etc.

A contemporary art museum dedicated to Archetypal Expressionism or a project for a future edition of the Venice Biennale could become outstanding achievements of the group.

The design of the site is signed by a young and gifted stage director, Victor Olăhuţ from Cluj Napoca, the city of the most successful wave of young Romanian visual artists, with Adrian Ghenie as a worldwide acclaimed leader.

January192015

”Gauguin’s Child”, selected for a new Lavacow auction event

One of my favourite artworks, ”Gauguin’s Child”, was selected for the future Lavacow auction event, to be held on January 26, at 9 pm, EET,

http://lavacow.com/gaugain-s-children.html

This work was exhibited in Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest, as part of my solo show, ”Gauguin’s Children”, in May 2012,

http://www.modernism.ro/2012/05/02/constantin-severin-copiii-lui-gauguin-elite-art-gallery-bucuresti/

https://www.sensotv.ro/arte/Clipa-de-arta-3343/copiii-lui-gauguin-de-constantin-severin

My art lovers and collectors may have the chance to purchase an artwork dedicated to one of the artists I love, Paul Gauguin, but in the same time with a cultural allusion to a contemporary artist, Georg Baselitz.

January112015

Debate: Archetypal Expressionism Group vs MoMA

Forever Now: Archetypal Expressionism

There is a lot of evidence in the print media (from Monitorul de Suceava, Romania, in November 2001 to World Literature Today, USA, in November 2014) as well as on the Internet that, since the beginning of this century, I was probably a kind of Don Quijote in art theory, asserting on every occasion that besides the two major paradigms recognized by all art historians, namely the figurative and the abstract, there is another major, third paradigm, the archetypal art, which is the oldest, sitting between the figurative and the abstract.
In 2000-2001, I launched in some Romanian newspapers my new art concept/movement, the archetypal expressionism; I also published my statement/manifesto and some journalists and art critics started talking about it at my first solo shows, “Text and Time”, Bucovina Museum, Suceava, in September 2004 and “The Metaphors of Time”, NahVision Gallery, Stuttgart, November-December 2004, both of them promoted on the cultural section of the TV channel EuroNews (the well-known journalist, Wolfgang Spindler, was the first to announce me the amazing decision of the EuroNews staff).

http://www.archetypeinaction.com/index.php/en/featured-authors/157-constantin-severin/2098-archetypal-expressionism

In 2007 I became the founder of the first Archetypal Expressionism Group, with 32 artists from 19 countries. In the near future a young Swiss art dealer will launch an art gallery with 10 of the best international artists who shared my art concept.

https://constantinseverin.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/the-story-of-the-first-archetypal-expressionism-group/

https://constantinseverin.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/archetypal-expressionism-art-gallery/

For many years I thought that my focus on the archetypal art, which in the twentieth century was represented by such major visual artists like Constantin Brancusi, Paul Klee or Ion Tuculescu, will be considered a marginal experience. But last month I was very surprised to find out about the new project at the MoMA in New York City, FOREVER NOW, curated by Laura Hoptman:

http://press.moma.org/2014/04/forever-now/

Her project statement about the works of the seventeen invited artists comes very close to my archetypal expressionism manifesto/statement, written thirteen years ago and featured across numerous media outlets: “…whose work is atemporal, in a similar way: it is based on archetypal, symbolic forms that are by definition undatable, existing outside any specific time period .“
This is indeed the essence of my art concept too, written in different words. I was both happy and unhappy to read such statements, so connected to my vision of art. Happy because of the indirect recognition of my achievements by a well-known and prestigious global art institution, but very unhappy to notice there is no reference to my work. Why? Probably because I live in a marginal country, but which has a great culture, in my opinion. Furthermore, I am not an American citizen or resident and my art is not represented by a major American art dealer, like all the invited artists. Now I am much more unhappy, because I sent a message to Laura Hoptman on Facebook and Twitter and unfortunately I did not receive an answer. Now I’m sure that MoMA’s art curator read my texts about the archetypal art, the third paradigm, and archetypal expressionism. She and other American or worldwide art lovers could admire in the November 2014 issue of the famous American literary magazine “World Literature Today” one of my artworks belonging to the Archetypal Expressionism Series, namely “Text and Time 81” and could read the following short bio: “Constantin Severin (constantinseverin.ro) is a Romanian writer and, as visual artist, the founder and promoter of the award-winning concept known as archetypal expressionism. He is the author of eight books of poetry, essays, and novels, and his poems have been published by major Romanian and international literary magazines. He is one of the editors of the French cultural magazine Levure littéraire.”
I invite the art specialists and art lovers to compare Laura Hoptmans’s texts for the project “The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World”
“(…) Atemporality, or timelessness, manifests itself in painting as an ahistorical free-for-all, where contemporaneity as an indicator of new form is nowhere to be found, and all eras co-exist. This profligate mixing of past styles and genres can be identified as a kind of hallmark for our moment in painting, with artists achieving it by reanimating historical styles or recreating a contemporary version of them, sampling motifs from across the timeline of 20th-century art in a single painting or across an oeuvre, or radically paring their language down to the most archetypal forms’’
with some of the texts written in the past by international art experts about my art, from which I quote more extensive passages below:
“Elements of expressionism and classical realism combine in the works of Constantin Severin. His rich-colored geometric compositions are combined with perfectly recognizable genre scenes that quote masters of realistic painting – Jan Vermeer, Diego Velazquez and others. On the one hand, the artist sets the idea of artistic evolution in his works. On the other hand, he demonstrates that Realism is just one of the many ways to accept and display the world.” (Olga BORTE, art critic and journalist, Moscow)
“We are proud to have included in the Lavacow Christmas Auction a work by Constantin Severin, whom we appreciate for the delicate mixture between different artistic styles, creating a harmonious all that succeeds to communicate, through a single artwork, the essence of the history of art.”(Cristina OLTEANU, CEO at LAVACOW Auction House, Bucharest)
“Symbols, lines, surfaces, spaces. All the humanity is made of mysterious symbols. And Constantin Severin uses them to write a new language of art. A language made of concepts, feelings, colours and emotions. Constantin travels in the past, in the ancient times and dimensions, to return in our present and tell about the possible futures. About the next lines of expression, to describe the present, drawing the future with past symbols. His own symbols.”(Luca CURCI, visual artist and architect, founder of “It’s Liquid” art magazine, Bari)
“We are looking forward to having Constantin Severin (the founder and promoter of the archetypal expressionism) and his group exhibiting at the Rotterdam International Art Fair. The works of Constantin is of a very interesting concept for our show. We are always looking for fresh new concepts and like to introduce these to our audience. We think that the archetypal expressionism – which lies between the two major paradigms of contemporary art, the figurative and the abstract – will do very well at the Art Fair, and we are looking forward to seeing the works in real-life.” (Joelle DINNAGE, Director at Global Art Agency Ltd)
“In literary and visual expression, but perhaps most notably in his clear-sighted theory of our present condition, Constantin Severin is breaking new ground. The concept of “Post-Literature” (which he has articulated in an article accessible at http://www.inst.at/trans/14Nr/severin14.htm) reveals him as one of the most original of contemporary thinkers concerning the nature of creative activity and the self-transformation that it is currently undergoing. One would be missing something important not to know of what Severin (situated of all places in Suceava, Romania) is up to. Take a look at the article, then search the web for his reductively symbolic paintings, which are on the verge of forging a new post-modern vocabulary from modernist precedent and nativist tradition. As western Europe declines, esthetically, morally, politically, something apparently is happening in Eastern Europe, and Severin is a part of it.” (Madison MORRISON, American writer)
I’m still waiting for some explanations from Mrs. Laura Hoptman, the distinguished curator of the recent event at MoMA and I hope that all these aspects are miraculous coincidences, a kind of synchronic twin visions …

Constantin SEVERIN, Suceava, Romania

PS

Some media samples  about other strange behaviours of  the actual MoMA’s staff, directed by Glenn Lowry:

 

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/apr/12/momas-act-vandalism/

 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/museum-of-modern-art-new-york-expansion

 

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/glenn-lowry-moma7-9-10.asp

 

http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/saltz-renovation-plan-will-ruin-moma.html

December072014

Severin’s art is represented by Lavacow International Auction House

A Christmas gift for Severin’s art lovers and collectors: one of his artworks, Text and Time 73, oil on canvas&cardboard, 40×50 cm, 2009, was included at Lavacow Christmas Auction in December 15, 9 pm EET, at a promotional price.

http://lavacow.com/current-auctions/lavacow-christmas-auction/text-and-time-73.html

This artwork belonging to his renown Archetypal Expressionism Series, has a special biography, it was exhibited in some of the group shows of the 3rd Paradigm International Artists Group in Portugal and Spain: Funil Art Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal, February 2010, Jose de Lorenzo Gallery, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, July 2010 and Vieira Portuense Gallery, Oporto, Portugal, October 2010.

LAVACOW, Bucharest is the first international auction house dedicated to Emerging European Art, with a focus on the best contemporary Romanian and Estearn European visual artists. New promising artists, on their way to public acclaim, are presented alongside internationally established artists. As an online-only auction house, it can be easily accessible to anyone around the world. It’s a new, innovative art platform, the ’’terrible child’’ born in the Spring of 2014 by the most important auction house in Romania, ARTMARK.

It’s a big honour to be represented by such an elite art institution together with some famous Romanian artists belonging to the miraculous Cluj Art School and its very famous and internationally acclaimed leader, Adrian Ghenie (1,8 million in a Sotherby sale) and other major visual artists like Corneliu Baba, Marcel Iancu, Horia Damian, George Apostu, Paul Neagu, Ion Grigorescu, Geta Bratescu, Mircea Roman, Dan Perjovschi, Florin Niculiu, Roman Tolici, Dumitru Gorzo, Aurel Tar, etc, all of them involved in this Lavacow Christmas Auction.

But the worlwide art collectors may have the big chance to buy at this important Lavacow auction event artworks signed by some classics of the universal art, like Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Roy Lichtenstein, Juan Miro, Daniel Spoerri, Alexander Calder, Joseph Beuys, Rene Magritte, Gerhard Richter or Christo.

November152014

Featured Poet in World Literature Today

The November issue of World Literature Today, the prestigious American literary magazine dedicated to contemporay world literature, highlights Central European literature on the twenty-fifth anniversiary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A fragment of one of  Constantin Severin’s best poems, „Wall and Neutrino,” translated by Carla Baricz, was included in this special anthology, After the Wall Fell: Dispatches from Central Europe (1989–2014), aimed at popularizing post-Wende Central European literature.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/november

The assistant director and editor in chief of World Literature Today, the writer Daniel Simon, who was the coordinator of this elegant and incisive issue focusing on Central European writing, suggested that Severin could illustrate his text with a painting from the Archetypal Expressionism Series, ‘’Text and Time 81,’’ oil on canvas, 50×70 cm, 2011.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/november/editors-note-november-2014#.VEpdxlfvBc5

World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s bimonthly magazine of international literature and culture currently celebrating the 88th year of continuous publication, is one of the best and the most influential literary/cultural magazine in the field of global literature, renown not only for its remarkable efforts to ‘’scan’’ today’s global literature but also for its prestigious Neustadt International Prize, the so-called ‘American Nobel.’

The poem published by World Literature Today belongs to Severin’s future book of selected poems in English, Wall and Neutrino. The Poet in New York. This book in progress features a forward by the well-known Italian writer Manrico Murzi, the former disciple and university assistant of the famous poet Giuseppe Ungaretti (the first winner of the Neustadt International Prize, in 1970). Murzi is a member of the editorial board of the prestigious Italian publisher Bompiani (Milano), a member of the Committee of Writers of the European Union, and an UNESCO Ambassador of Culture. I hope that I will be able to place this collection of selected poems with a good publishing house in United States or in Great Britain.

Severin’s translator, Carla Baricz, is a doctoral student in the English Department at Yale University. She is also a translator from the Romanian and is the assistant editor and translator of the Trinity University Press anthology Romanian Writers on Writing. She has recent work in Romanian Writing (August, 2013), Alpha: Revistă de Cultură (2014), Observator Cultural (February, 2014) and in Magyar Lettre Internationale. She has reviewed for the LA Review of Books and Words Without Borders: Literature in Translation.