GETA BRATESCU
Fără titlu (Untitled)
2013
Collage, crayon, cardboard und wooden sticks on paper, 2 parts
9.5 x 40.5 cm

The work of the Romanian artist Geta Brătescu (1926 – 2018) is remarkably diverse and demonstrates an engagement with a wide range of media and materials. She worked largely unaffected by artistic developments in Western Europe and under the difficult conditions that prevailed during the Ceaușescu regime. Geta Brătescu described herself as a “draughtswoman in the service of the line”. Her fondness for collage is also closely linked to the concept of drawing and, in her own understanding, amounted to a “drawing with scissors”.

Brătescu never sought to define her role as an artist too rigidly and regarded herself as a “creator of visual images”. Her works likewise at times transcend the boundaries of clearly defined categories. This is the case with the two collages ‘Fără titlu (Untitled)’ from 2013, which acquire a relief-like quality through the arrangement of crumpled pieces of paper and enter the territory between collage and assemblage. The wooden sticks in the composition are no longer recognisable as everyday objects, nor are the small matchboxes, yet both attest to the great experimental curiosity with which Geta Brătescu approached the materials she used.