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Paula CraioveanuPASSION #3 - nude male painting by Paula Craioveanu oil on canvas2024
2024
About the Item
"Passion #3" . Composition with Two Male Nudes, oil on canvas, 35.5x19.5in / 90x50cm
Part of "Wings of Gods" solo show, April 2024. see pictures from the show.
Shipped as it is, stretched. Free shipping with 1stDibs code FREESHIP.
Part of a series, see the other 2 paintings - Passion #1 and Passion #2.
Passion #1, Passion #2, Passion #3 - a thought-provoking series, with a unique blend of expressive movement, emotional intensity, and layered meaning.
Together, these three works create a multi-layered narrative of passion, where each piece examines a different emotional and physical relationship to intensity, desire, and tension:
Passion #1 - Surrender & Vulnerability– Passion as something that overtakes the body.
Passion #2 - Merging & Sensuality– Passion as connection, fluidity, and transformation.
Passion #3 - Struggle & Strength– Passion as control, resistance, and endurance.
By alternating between male and female figures, the series suggests that passion is not bound by gender—it is a universal human experience that manifests in different ways. The use of red as the dominant color amplifies the emotions running through all three works, from desire and heat to tension and release.
"Passion #3" features two overlapping male figures, their forms intertwined in a surreal and layered composition. The dominant figure in the foreground is actively pulling a rope, creating a sense of tension and movement. Behind him, rendered in transparency, is the outline of another man with his hands tied by the same rope, suggesting a dynamic and psychological relationship between the two figures. The rope serves as a central object, connecting the figures both physically and metaphorically.
The foreground figure is muscular, nude, and in a powerful stance, emphasizing action and control. His body is strongly delineated with gestural lines, showcasing anatomy and motion. The second figure, in the background, appears restrained and submissive, with his hands tied. This man’s form is fainter and more spectral, reinforcing his secondary, dependent role. Together, their physical appearances contrast—one exudes strength and agency, while the other suggests vulnerability and captivity.
The background is vivid red, which acts as an abstract and emotional field rather than a literal space. The lack of environmental details focuses attention on the interaction and relationship between the two figures. The surreal layering of the men, with transparency suggesting time or overlapping realities, gives the painting a dreamlike quality.
The texture of the painting is energetic and gestural, with rapid, fluid brushstrokes outlining the figures. The overlapping forms and transparent layering of the second figure introduce complexity, creating a sense of depth while maintaining the immediacy of a sketch. This layered approach enhances the surreal quality of the work.
The dominant red background creates an intense emotional atmosphere, symbolizing passion, conflict, or struggle. The figures are outlined in black and muted tones, standing in stark contrast to the vibrant red. This palette reinforces the psychological and symbolic nature of the piece, emphasizing tension, pain, or connection.
Lighting is implied rather than explicit. Depth and form are suggested through the use of lines and overlapping figures rather than traditional shading. The lack of conventional lighting enhances the abstract, surreal feeling and focuses on the relationship between the characters.
The rope is a key symbol, representing control, power dynamics, and interconnectedness. The act of pulling suggests exertion and struggle, while the tied hands of the second figure evoke themes of restraint, submission, or entrapment. The transparency of the second figure introduces a duality, implying that these two men represent different aspects of the same individual or a metaphorical relationship between dominance and subjugation.
The surreal layering of the figures suggests influences of modern surrealism or cinematic storytelling. The transparency of the second figure could be interpreted as a memory, a ghostly presence, or an alternate version of the foreground character. This duality creates a narrative tension, leaving the viewer to question whether the scene represents an external conflict, an internal struggle, or a symbolic exploration of power and vulnerability.
This painting resonates with modern surreal art, using abstraction and layered imagery to explore complex psychological and emotional themes. The red background amplifies the intensity and drama, making it a deeply evocative and thought-provoking work.
Artist Statement
"I started by painting interiors, being interested in space and perspective through my studies. These scenes evolved, when I added the human figure. I focused more on the human figure and its relation to the background. The human figure is more present than ever in my paintings now.
As a woman artist I’ve been preoccupied with the female form and its imagery. One of my goals was to capture the solitary moments and the nude’s relation to the surrounding space.
My interest turned from depicting the space to rendering the atmosphere and the scene as a whole, the feeling a woman adds to the environment: warmth, desire, joy, a feeling of power and control, or the opposite – sadness, despair.
Here is a collection of figurative paintings, exploring the nudes in interior spaces, seeing the nudes from my perspective, as a woman artist, considering the physical and spiritual realities of a woman’s body, in a new level of intimacy. My paintings are the opposite of objectifying a woman’s or a man’s anatomy. Painted works, featuring female nudes and a also men nudes, in a reversal of the male-artist/female-muse pattern, validate the feminine experience, defining myself through it.
I was interested in how one experiences the body in a sensual form, and later focused on my own body, as I experience it myself, looking into the mirror and reconnecting.
My work challenges the tradition of the nude by capturing my point of view, the gaze of a female painter, by using photography, drawings, sketches, and painting on canvas, for, both physical and psychological exploration.
My art tries to create a visual language for emotion, beauty, feelings of intimacy and in the same time autonomy, captured with paint and vivid colors. My intense interest in colour and the gestures of the brush strokes are the means I see and convey the subjects in space, as living, passionate beings."
Paula Craioveanu
Biography:
Paula Craioveanu is a Romanian artist, born in 1976. She grew up surrounded by art and inspiration, in a family of artists. Trained in Bucharest and New York as an architect and painter. Holds a degree in Architecture and a PhD in Visual Arts. Presently working as a full-time artist.
At the age of 16, Paula Craioveanu moved to New York, where she came in contact with New York’s vibrant art scene, she graduated from high school and then studied at Parsons School of Design. Then she moved back to Romania where she studied for the next 6 years at the Architecture University in Bucharest and graduated with a degree in Architecture in 2000. In 2013 she earned a Ph.D in Visual Arts at the University of Arts in Bucharest with the theme “Geometry of Space in 17th century Dutch painting”. After this, she dedicated her full time to art, and showed her talent to the art world.
Paula Craioveanu works in acrylic and oil paints, but also pen and ink or tempera works on paper. She regularly participates in shows and exhibitions in galleries along the East and West Coast of the United States, like bG Gallery Santa Monica, Dacia Gallery and Perseus Gallery in New York.
Paula Craioveanu’s work is featured on the two most exclusive online art marketplaces, 1stDibs and Artsy.
Over the course of 20 years, Paula Craioveanu has created several painting series: “Abstract”, “Interiors”, “Nude in Interior”, “NeoMythology”. Paula Craioveanu’s work has been placed in private collection around the world, both in Europe and in the United States.
Today, Paula Craioveanu has set up studios and works in Bucharest and New York.
Find original Paula Craioveanu paintings, works on paper and other art on 1stDibs.
Next: Works on display - December 2024, Context Art Miami.
- Creator:Paula Craioveanu (1976, Romanian)
- Creation Year:2024
- Dimensions:Height: 35.5 in (90.17 cm)Width: 19.5 in (49.53 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Forest Hills, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: Romanian-American artist. PhD in Visual Arts.1stDibs: LU2240215178712
Paula Craioveanu
Trained in Bucharest and New York as architect and painter. Holds a degree in Architecture and a PhD in Visual Arts. Presently working as a full-time artist.
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