“Japanese-like drawing combined with Matisse-like chromatic subtlety”, says the curator Erwin Kessler about the Florin Mitroi exhibition at ARSMONITOR

Maybe is not an easy exhibition to take. Maybe Florin Mitroi’s art works are a bit dark, a bit violent and (too) sad. At the same time, “as the exhibition at ARSMONITOR shows, there is plenty of tenderness, frailty, emotion, lyricism as well as irony, sarcasm, and moralism in his art”, says the curator of the exhibition, Erwin Kessler. “Florin Mitroi – Ch. I: Winter” exhibition puts together a serie of 30 works in the show, plus the over 60 photographs. I talked with Erwin Kessler, the curator of the exhibition about the ways that we discover (and rediscover) the work of this super talented artist, the techniques and the messages that we have to look for in the artworks. 

Florin Mitroi – Ch. I: Winter, curated by Erwin Kessler – at ARSMONITOR – to see between 14 November 2024 to 8 January 2025 – www.arsmonitor.ro 

Why Florin Mitroi? Why do we need a more complex exhibition of this particular Romanian artist?

Erwin Kessler: One meets lots of people but only clings to a few of them during one’s lifetime. In art is the same – there is a museum full of recent artists around, and a curator could imagine countless exhibitions with dozens of exhibited artists. But finally a curator is investing only in a handful of artists, because they somehow frame a curator’s formal, existential and spiritual quests. This is the case of Florin Mitroi for me – he incorporates the tragic figure of the secluded and over-critical artist during communism and equally during the early consumerism in Romania. His self-destructive psyche paradoxically fused with his incessant aspiration towards the perfect formal expression of a totally imperfect being is exemplary for the split consciousness of today. It exceeds art by far and goes directly to an anthropological standpoint. 

For some viewers, his art was kind of dark and violent. And sad, most of the time. How would you describe it? 

Erwin Kessler: Precisely like that – dark, violent and sad. But not only. As the exhibition at ARSMONITOR shows, there is plenty of tenderness, frailty, emotion, lyricism as well as irony, sarcasm, and moralism in his art. There is research in his art too – the very special contribution of this exhibition consists in the over 60 photographs selected from the huge archive of photo-research in ethnography and anthropology of Mitroi, as well as some examples from his photo-performances. And, of course, there are quite a few thrilling examples of perfect masterpieces by Florin Mitroi, of sharp, Japanese-like drawing combined with Matisse-like chromatic subtlety. 

What is the technique / the detail / the painting that we must look for in the upcoming exhibition? 

Erwin Kessler: Florin Mitroi is the most accomplished draughtsman in the Romanian art of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His favored instrument was the pinsel (paintbrush), his drawings are either in ink or tempera. So, everything related to his inspired drawings, either on paper, wood, glass, canvas or zinc plates is a must see. Next to it, this exhibition is the first showing Mitroi’s photography, and this is more than noticeable, both in terms of content, as a personal research, and in formal terms, as perfect pictures.

How many pieces will be presented in this Ch. I: Winter at ARSMONITOR? Why is just Chapter 1? When are we going to see chapter 2?

Erwin Kessler: There are over 30 works in the show, plus the over 60 photographs. This is the chapter 1 because next year there will be chapter 2. Each chapter correspond to a season.

Florin Mitroi was a mentor teacher to a whole generation of recent artists, from Dumitru Gorzo and Suzana Dan, to Alexandru Rădvan and Anca Benera. The exhibition “Florin Mitroi: Chap. I: Winter”, offers a new perspective on Mitroi’s complexity, some of the works being shown for the first time in Romania, alongside a wide selection of his photographic work. The art works are on wood, glass and canvas, galvanized sheet or on paper. 

Photography: Ionuț Dobre / ARSMONITOR.