APOCALIPSIS CUM FIGURIS, the solo exhibition of artist Valentin Scarlatescu at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Călin Dan, can be visited on the third and fourth floors of the museum until October 12, 2025.
“Valentin Scărlătescu had a blazing career within the Romanian ’80s generation, marked by several memorable exhibitions. Then, he left that path, emigrating to Paris in the middle of the decade. This French trajectory separated the artist from the vibrant energy of young local art to such an extent that, while preparing a curatorial reconstruction of the period, I found myself wondering whether the memory of those solo shows, both intense and vague, wasn’t simply a glitch of recollection. I even questioned whether the artist then known as Ion Valentin Scărlătescu wasn’t in fact a composite figure, pieced together from stylistic and thematic flashbacks typical of the group of artists assimilated to the international Neo-Expressionist movement.
Valentin Scărlătescu blazed through Romania’s vibrant ’80s art scene before emigrating to Paris mid-decade. His departure was so complete that decades later, some wondered if those memorable exhibitions had been real or just fragments of memory.
Then, by chance, Galeria Romană owner Emil Ene revealed works that confirmed what had seemed like a ghost story. Scărlătescu’s art stood at a fascinating crossroads—channeling the demons of Expressionism through Van Gogh and Emil Nolde, radical influences rarely seen in Romanian painting of that era.”
—Călin Dan
Source: mnac.ro
