E 68 Painting

Orfey Grünberg: Review by Anthony Fawcett Orfey Grünberg is a distinguished painter and engineer from Sofia, Bulgaria, where he still lives and works. I had the good fortune to meet him in London and experience his work firsthand at the iconic Boomer Gallery. He is a large bear of a man with a deep voice and a warm heart. After studying industrial design, which he still practices with myriad designs sold all over the world, Grünberg turned to his first love—abstract painting. Working with acrylic and oil on large canvases using a variety of different-sized palette knives, he magically conjures up paintings brilliantly rich with a veritable rainbow of colors bursting through whilst revealing hidden layers behind. One is transported to Giverny, to Monet’s garden. Grünberg’s oeuvre feels very spontaneous, exploding with volcanic energy, in the true tradition of the originals like Jackson Pollock—namely, quickly and without any hesitation. To quote another master from the last century, and one of my favorites, Cy Twombly wrote: “To paint involves a certain crisis, or at least a crucial moment of sensation, or release, and by crisis, it should by no means be limited to a morbid state, but could just as well be one ecstatic impulse” (L'Esperienza Moderna, No. 2, 1957). Orfey Grünberg is a sensualist, tirelessly working with ever more luscious colors, dazzling us with his ripe, radiant, and saturated hues. I feel a sense of music too, emanating from his paintings, and ultimately he leaves us in a happier and richer world. -Anthony Fawcett