Ana C. Lupu, a graduate of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, chose painting as her predominant form of expression but remains open to other media. Her artistic discourse explores the perception of the female body in the history of art, investigating the clichés of representation and how specific images accompany us throughout our lives. Active in the Romanian art scene, Ana has participated in multiple exhibitions such as Art Safari, MoBu Art, and Diploma Show. She lives and works in Cluj-Napoca.

Angela Izvercian: Please tell us about your first artistic manifestations. How and when did you discover that your calling was to be an artist?

Ana- Cristina Lupu: Like any child, I have been drawing since I can remember, but the decisive moment in this regard was when I was admitted to Tonitza High School at the age of 11. I entered the path of art, I gradually began to understand what it was about, and I became more and more fascinated by art. I had the opportunity to exhibit in places such as George Enescu Memorial House (Sinaia), the Museum of Old Books and Maps (Bucharest), the Museum of Old Western Art (Bucharest), cafes and private spaces – exhibitions that were welcome in pre-university development since there is always a need to validate your work. It was also here that I observed aspects behind the scenes of an exhibition and principles of paneling – things related to parietal artistic education. In what followed, I have one certainty: I never thought of doing anything else… Here I am!

A.I: You have studied painting at the famous Cluj School. To what extent did your university studies influence your artistic path and the development of your own style?

A.C.L.: For me, the university holds a special place due to the still nostalgic atmosphere it creates and the freedom it allows the student. “The Cluj School” does not impose a “promising” solution in painting but helps you follow a path, exploring various levels of expression and challenges in rendering the themes imposed by the teachers. As you react to the themes, you refine your working technique and the topics addressed.

A.I.: You declare yourself deeply attached to figurative painting. What stimulated you in this direction?

A.C.L.: In front of a Rothko or a Kline, I can remain breathless and hypnotized for a long time. In fact, I also have an abstract series that I am working on in parallel, but it is easier for me to paint figuratively, having a predilection for this direction, because I am fascinated by the expressive valences of the human body, as incidentally, it has fascinated many others throughout time. You can say a lot about a road you often travel more than about a place you have never (yet) been.

A.I.: Some voices consider painting obsolete. How do you argue the relevance of painting in the current context?

A.C.L.: David Hockney says that “not photography will last, but painting. Painting is the avant-garde”. He probably refers to the fact that painting is an intentional practice, coordinated from the beginning and very attached to manuality. Painting has something magnetic because it decants ideas and hypostases of human beings into something material – it translates a thought. In the same vein, I have also heard that theater will no longer exist because streaming platforms will replace it. I believe you cannot cancel an ancient practice that has withstood time precisely because man found himself so faithfully in it.

A.I.: Were you tempted to experiment with other media?

A.C.L.: I recently found some old engravings in my personal archive, in pointe sèche, in a pin-up style (more painterly due to the vibrated line). Also, last summer, I started working in stainless steel for the first time and created a metal garter belt – an ironic comment. So, I sometimes experiment with related media, but I would like to express myself (also) in ceramics; I discovered Chinese ceramics from the Tang Dynasty with those cute statuettes representing dancing girls, but also the Jun type from the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the latter inspires me through its picturality and mineral chromaticity, which I sometimes approach in my personal works.

A.I.: Your artistic discourse explores the perception of the female body in the history of art, investigating the clichés of representation and how certain images accompany us throughout our lives. What determined this research direction, and what does it mean to you?

A.C.L.: A previous theme that we addressed was the oneiric one, which we transposed as closely as possible to the ephemeral images that are created during dreams to the detriment of the bizarreness characteristic of a type of dream. Therefore, we studied the force of clarity with which we can still remember a dream or a distant event and why some images are more active in the subconscious than others.
We arrived at the idea of the cliché and of investigating it from within, in order to later abandon it. The cliché is a large story with many connections, dramatically simplified, repeated to the point where we can no longer tell where it started. I connected this idea to the cliché of pin-up illustrations, which display figures with specific symbols (high heels, twisted hairstyles, red, glittery lipstick, scantily clad clothing) but without identity.
When you read about the dramas, for example, of Marilyn Monroe, when you return to her iconic figure, something prevents you from referring to her as a simple image of desire. The body transposed into painting, is often very vivant and carnal, sometimes much more real than reality itself would seem to us. I paint these figures with love because I feel attached to them or I find myself in certain aspects.

A.I.: What message do you want to convey through your art?

A.C.L.: Like any artist, I am fascinated by life. I have read that “beauty” is defined by the character of an individual to be valid from a sexual point of view. Because I am going through the period of youth – la fleur de l’âge – I formally study the hypostases of the “ideal body”, unbeatable, glamorous. The message of my painting is what makes life possible: to protect the human being by granting him the rights fully necessary to develop (I thus advocate for empathy and equality) and the triumphant character of sexuality more or less revealed through painting.

A.I.: What are the stages of your creative process, from the idea to the final wor

A.C.L.: For a while, I have been trying to distance myself from any direction of an image I propose to paint. I usually paint things that affect me, and that stay with me in my memory for a little longer. Lately, I have been painting “comfortable” scenes but without abandoning them in this “lightness”. If others do preliminary research and present a panoply of symbols that will be noted in the composition they are concerned with, I start from a photograph that I stylize or abandon along the way to modify its configuration and, sometimes, its meaning. However, the chromatic palette is established from the beginning of the work; I rarely introduce a new color or shade to the palette after I’ve already started working. In the beginning, I have more of a color map in mind than a final image, and this helps give me the freedom to interpret along the way or to encrypt a shape I perceive.

A.I.: When do you know you’ve finished a work? Tell us more about the whole experience until you’re completely satisfied with the result.

A.C.L.: I’ve always had a conflict about when a work is considered “finished”. During college I could bring a work to an end that would be expected by the viewer, but I was always seduced by sketches and fresh drafts. I received a valuable piece of advice that I always follow: “Keep the tension of the painting at the level of the sensation of the first kiss”. This would come somewhere before it’s finished, right at the emotional apex. This is where I like to keep a work: I put the subject before the viewer, a few “verbs” to help them understand, and some brushstrokes that often stop in some incomplete areas. This is the unknown space that comes with the tension of the event, which I leave to the viewer to complete.

A.I.: Please tell us about your most recent series of works, entitled “the privilege of being looked at”. How does this new series complement your artistic approach?

A.C.L.: The idea for the series came to me from Marlene Dumas’ eponymous poem; it seemed to me that it could function as a definition for art itself. The image requires a viewer, as does this whole contemporary rush for beauty. Through this series, I am actually commenting on certain attitudes transmitted through visual culture about beauty and representational clichés. I found an analogue of the reclining nudes, whose function seems so immediate to me, with that of pin-up images. The directed positions and the specific, omnipresent lighting are common features of the two periods of representation. At the same time, I noticed that a painted object, even something very banal, becomes intellectualized by human perception.

A.I.: Very often, when entering a contemporary art gallery, the public is faced with the famous question, is this art? Why do you think contemporary art continues to be a challenge for the general public?

A.C.L.: The fact that the public is not sensitized to unconventional manifestations in contemporary art seems to me as puerile, as does the attitude of accepting anything as art. Although art functioned for a long time as an information vehicle between man and idea/divinity/abstract form, which had to be “digestible” from a visual point of view, today, it has been freed from such a function.
I have noticed that many people confuse the modern period with the recent/contemporary one without noticing the fact that they are separated by 100 years in which many historical and social events took place. Even the manifesto no longer seems to be characteristic of contemporary art but rather a sincere analysis of the human condition that is so sensitive to changes in technology and the concealment of information, as well as the means of socialization. These things are defining for contemporary society, and I believe that quality art captures, among other things, this aspect of life without denying the refinement of previous criteria.

A.I.: How would you like the viewer to interact with your works? Do you want them to feel/see something in a particular way?

A.C.L.: A recurring aspect in my paintings is symbols and poses that refer to femininity. Whether it’s lace, gloves, or satin surfaces, they figure as a part of me and the mirage that certain objects confer on my experience of being a woman. I find myself inside this process and try to analyze it gradually, developing my sense of defining it. I would like the symbols I use in this process to be noticed.

A.I.: You are an active presence on the Romanian art scene. You have been invited to participate in important exhibition events organized by Arta Prezentului, MARe, Diploma Show and Art Safari. How important are these collaborations for your artistic evolution?

A.C.L.: When you work within the studio’s walls, everything unfolds like a regular job: you have a schedule that you have to fit into and often a number of works that you are expected to complete within a certain time frame. You work without contact with reality but with the confidence that you are doing it well.
The first contact with reality is the moment you leave the studio and see your works valued by the curators (sometimes you are even surprised by the finishing touch of putting the canvases on the chassis). I think it is a decisive moment because, as I argued previously, the image needs a receiver, so this is the moment of maximum interaction of the public with the works. In addition to the prestige and gratitude that come with such events, you are responsible for continuing the practice in which you have been immersed.

A.I.: What projects are you working on now, and what are your future plans?

A.C.L.: In addition to the desire to investigate other media of expression, I want to dedicate myself to a series of works that, of course, are faithful to my personality. As in any research, I will go through a bibliography supporting my future works because I believe that painting is an act of thinking, another intellectual practice.