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Quotes

Quotes

“I always thought that painting a city is like portraying a living being. A city has to have a soul, probably a multiple one. It is fascinating to try to describe with humble painter's tools the spirit and substance of such a great and astonishing city like New York. Eventually you will discover that, like any other city, New York has its own unique happy but still true moments that ought to be inscribed on canvas. Because, as G. M. Cantacuzino said: «the cities carry in and on themselves the signs of the virtues and sins of those who have built them...»”

Radu Serban

“Radu Serban's artistic adventures are diverse in subject covering a spectrum that has no geographic borders - from his native Romania to the sophisticated streets of Paris, France as well as western locations, including Canada and the rich landscapes of America.

Color, profuse and wonderfully bright with energy and unique combinations, reflect upon the impressionist roots of the past preserved and applied to the cityscapes of modern city life. The ordinary village corner, a diner on the avenue of a Soho location and the tall skyscrapers become profound statements of the artist's imagination filling the canvas with the intensity of meaning.

Working with palette knife, he etches the lines of every essential element with his measurable skill and intellect, interpreting the subject with new freshens. There is no contamination of mechanical means. The stroking, daubing provides a subtlety and texture of infinite variety."

Audrey Leeds
Director, L'Atelier Gallery,
Piermont, NY

“If, in its time, the concept of ‘vanguard’ was closely associated with a certain form of ‘courage’ - the courage to defy the current artistic norms as well as the afferent aesthetical point of view - today it takes a certain courage to turn to ‘recognizable’ tools, as Radu Serban does. Using, with a remarkable honesty and skill, color and composition, his figurative landscapes are evocative and relevant, a true gift from a gifted artist - art being, eventually, an act of generosity”.

Nina Cassian, Poet

“Radu Serban has the power and knowledge of sensitively translating the physical aspects of the city into a graphic concept of space, volume and light, achieving a characteristic ‘milieu’. In his recent paintings of New York, the space he explored was more vertical than horizontal; the light was striking large, flat and broken areas, creating dynamic shapes, in the strong light and shadow. Radu, in approaching this subject, felt the impact of its bold power. The strong contrasts that he used in value and color were enriched by the element of texture that he achieved with a richly loaded palette knife”

Donald C. Lynch - Curator
Edward Hopper House Art Center
Nyack, NY