Et In Arcadia Ego Painting

Valentin Neacsu is in a permanent journey of self discovery, eager to represent a whole personal realm profound and impossible to understand, through the means of the simple and direct symbols of the outside world. Thus, visual creation in its most diverse form is a constant stake for the artist. With each new object he adds to his work, he projects a possible universe. All that was painted will become reality. There is no other way. So the artist is more and more aware of his responsibility regarding the translation of his imagery onto paper or canvas. The University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania (Romania), from which Neacşu graduated in 2003, represents a totally different time in his spiritual becoming. The learning and assimilation of several major ideas about contemporary and 20th century art will determine the artist to adopt a better work discipline. In 2005, when he makes contact with the French art school’s philosophy as a scholarship student at École Régionale des Beaux Arts de Rennes, he discovers his deep affinity with western art and the cultural pattern it would follow in the new millennium. Starting from that moment, his speculative thinking and his ability to represent through drawing and figurative painting become the artist’s new instruments. In an article written by Bogdan Teodorescu in 2010 Neacşu’s creative technique is described for the first time. “What drew me to his work was the manufactured characteristic, the mark of his handiwork, sometimes above the conceptual one incapable of imposing itself independently…” Ultimately, the writer finishes his article, this time referring to the artist: “It’s more advantageous and stimulating to talk to Neacşu outside of his artwork. True, that’s also difficult because you can’t separate him from his artistic life. If Neacşu shows you a turtle, he does it in a way that you have to borrow from him if you want to be able to keep up with him. If you’d try to offend him, you would risk seeming ridiculous. I’m under the impression that Neacsu doesn’t listen to everybody.”