The National Art Museum Timișoara exhibits, within the “MNArT Open View” project, the work “Clopot” by Mihai Sârbulescu. The project allows access to private art collections, transposing them into the public space through the micro-gallery on Mercy Street.

The work on display is charged with symbolism, fitting for the celebration of one of the most important feasts in the Christian calendar.

Mihai Sârbulescu is one of the founding artists of the group “Prolog”, debuting in 1985 with the exhibition “Apple Blossom”. The artist fluctuates between austerity and exuberance, clear and allusive, descriptive and conceptual. Sârbulescu cherishes both the spirit of place, marked by Byzantine symbolism and hieraticism, and modernism and all the styles that flow from it. His creation is animated by stylistic and chromatic diversity, using vibrant colors and dull, metallic colors.

Sârbulescu began the series of “Bells” in the troubled antedecembrist period, with the intention of subtly urging the art-consuming public to spiritual awakening. Their realization involves casting the shape of the bell out of matter, which is then coated with metal powders to bring it to life. “The ‘Bells’, like the artist’s ever monochromatic ‘Vases’, have a timeless character, resulting from a combination of frontalism (which betrays Byzantine influence) and symmetry.

The golden reflection on the central axis of the object leads the eye to the symbol “CHI-RHO”, a reference to the early Christian period. It represents the first letters of the name Christ in Greek and was used to identify Christians. The symbol is repeated in a simplified form and repeated numerous times in the background.

“Mihai Sârbulescu’s art is marked by mysticism and loaded with symbols whose origin is lost in the mists of time. The bell, associated in Christianity with the voice of God, calls the viewer to meditate on the sacred geometry of the object. The Constantinian cross at the center of the work signals our belonging to Christianity, placing the work in a vernacular context,” says Alexandru Victor Babusceac, MNArT museographer.

The work “Clopot” by Mihai Sârbulescu will be on view in the Mercy Gallery from April 21, 2022. The National Museum of Art Timișoara thanks the collector Magdalena Marculescu for the generous loan of the work and Mrs. Maria Pasc for the information provided.