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Paula CraioveanuTHE TOWER - original large oil painting Paula Craioveanu 55x40in2014
2014
$2,400
$3,00020% Off
£1,832.39
£2,290.4920% Off
€2,117.31
€2,646.6420% Off
CA$3,369.15
CA$4,211.4320% Off
A$3,755.26
A$4,694.0820% Off
CHF 1,970.26
CHF 2,462.8220% Off
MX$45,857.89
MX$57,322.3720% Off
NOK 24,947.75
NOK 31,184.6920% Off
SEK 23,579.42
SEK 29,474.2720% Off
DKK 15,802.40
DKK 19,75320% Off
About the Item
"The Tower" - original large art by Paula Craioveanu
Original, large, unique painting, oil on canvas, 31.5x23.6in / 80x60cm. Shipped stretched, from Florida.
Check 1stDibs code FREESHIP
This painting, a study of an elaborate spiral staircase, demonstrates the artist’s skill in merging architectural elegance with a dynamic sense of movement and mystery. The subject itself—a wrought iron spiral staircase—becomes more than a functional object; it transforms into a metaphor for transcendence, curiosity, and the infinite.
The staircase is richly ornate, with swirling ironwork patterns and intricate details that capture the eye. The artist emphasizes the craftsmanship, elevating the staircase into a work of art itself. The ornamental designs echo Baroque or Rococo influences, known for their flamboyance and decorative excess. The spiral is inherently dynamic, drawing the viewer’s gaze upward in a continuous loop. This quality imbues the staircase with motion and energy, almost as if it is alive, spiraling into another dimension.
The artist employs a dramatic perspective, positioning the viewer at the base of the staircase, looking upward. This composition evokes a sense of aspiration or awe, as if the staircase ascends to an unknown destination. The light filtering through the structure accentuates the curvature and creates a contrast between the solid metal of the staircase and the soft, ephemeral glow of the environment. This interplay of light and shadow enhances the mood, making the staircase seem both tangible and ethereal.
The cool metallic grays and silvers of the staircase reflect its materiality, suggesting durability and permanence. At the same time, the reflective surfaces give it a shimmering, almost celestial quality. The background is suffused with warm, earthy tones—yellows, browns, and muted greens—that contrast with the cold metal of the staircase. This contrast creates a sense of tension between the man-made structure and the organic or natural environment surrounding it.
Symbolism. Spiral staircases are often symbolic of a journey, both physical and spiritual. They represent the process of ascent, growth, and transformation. This staircase seems to lead into a vortex of light, suggesting a path to enlightenment or transcendence. The spiral is a recurring motif in art and nature, often representing infinity, cycles, and continuity. The staircase's design hints at a journey without end, encouraging reflection on the passage of time and the eternal nature of life. The destination of the staircase is deliberately obscured, leaving the viewer to wonder where it leads. This creates a sense of mystery, drawing the viewer into an imaginative exploration of the unknown.
The swirling patterns in the ironwork mirror the overall spiral shape of the staircase, creating a sense of harmony and cohesion. These designs also add a decorative richness to the piece, tying it to the tradition of Romanticism or Gothic Revival, where even utilitarian objects were imbued with beauty and meaning.
The background is loosely rendered, with soft, swirling brushstrokes that echo the spiral of the staircase. This abstraction contrasts with the detailed depiction of the staircase, making the environment feel less defined and more dreamlike. The staircase appears to float in a liminal space, further emphasizing its symbolic and otherworldly qualities.
The viewer’s vantage point and the sheer scale of the staircase evoke a feeling of awe. It could symbolize humanity’s ambitions to reach higher realms—intellectually, spiritually, or artistically. The absence of people in the painting draws attention to the object itself, suggesting introspection or solitude. The staircase might represent a solitary journey, one that each individual must take alone. The intricate design and upward motion of the staircase, combined with the lack of a specific time or place, imbue the piece with a sense of timelessness. It could exist in any era, representing universal human themes.
In comparison to the artist’s other works, this painting shifts focus from mythological and figurative themes to an architectural subject. Yet, it retains the artist’s characteristic use of ornamentation, bold perspectives, and symbolic depth. Like the Minotaur or Zeus paintings, this piece explores transformation and the interplay between the physical and the transcendent, but it does so through an object rather than a figure.
This painting of the spiral staircase is a poetic meditation on ascent, mystery, and the infinite. Its dramatic perspective and intricate detail invite the viewer to embark on a visual and symbolic journey. The staircase is both grounded in material reality and elevated into the realm of metaphor, embodying the artist’s ability to transform everyday objects into profound and evocative works of art.
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:2014
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Width: 23.6 in (59.95 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: LU2240215595342
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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