Bercea's Loom of Days portrays three sitters, poised around a table, disturbed by a presence. These extravagant beings, with their choice of bold, lurid, patterned items of clothing, and constructed backdrop present a synthesis of colour.
Bercea's Loom of Days portrays three sitters, poised around a table, disturbed by a presence. These extravagant beings, with their choice of bold, lurid, patterned items of clothing, and constructed backdrop present a synthesis of colour. Fabrics dominate this painting, which explain the multifaceted meaning behind the title of the work, Loom of Days. If we look to the definitions of Loom; the noun – the loom as an apparatus for making fabric by holding thread under tension to facilitate interweaving – a tension which can be read in the faces of the sitters, and fitting given the abundance of fabrics within the painting; and the verb - to loom is to appear as a vague form, perhaps one that is threatening.
It is easy to see the influence of Les Nabis on Bercea's work, in Loom of Days the painting is dominated by the bold pattern's colours and motifs of the drapes and the costumes – one is reminded of Édouard Vuillard's La Robe  Ramages (The flowered dress) (1891). However, in contrast to the early works of Vuillard, Bercea here brings our attention to the expressions of the sitters – using Chiaroscuro, the faces are illuminated against the heavily contrasted, darker patterns of the drapes. The setups are staged, the heavily patterned backdrops, costumes and strong blocks of colour construct the picture, creating an extra-sensory nirvana. The motifs on the two draped fabrics, a peacock feather and half-sliced avocado, create a hypnotic presence, their patterned shapes reminiscent of an ocean of eyes - matching the stares of the sitters.
What we see here is an interruption – these figures have been left, happily undisturbed, and we have stumbled upon their haven. They stare blankly at the intruder, gathering their inner thoughts – how do we react to this person, how do we greet them, what is the new normal? Are these young adults ready to be reintroduced to society? They are presented here in their prime, yet there is an underlying sadness in their lack of expression - the artist reminds us here of Victor Hugo's description of melancholy – 'the happiness of being sad'. Once more, as with the artist's most recent bodies of work, in amongst the noise of the colours and patterns, these sombre faces tell the story of life in lockdown – all dressed up, but with nowhere to go.
In an apparent reflection of time standing still in the past 18 months, Bercea has slowed down his painterly technique. Using only pigment and turpentine, the work is built up with thin layers of paint, each allowed to dry before the next is applied. The result is a labour of love, every detail on the fabrics, the faces and surfaces of the work are considered, the paint sensitively applied, as if sympathetic to the scene upon which he has encountered.
Marius Bercea was born in 1979 in Cluj, Romania. His fascination with the aesthetics of the urban environment stems from the shift he witnessed as Romania transitioned from Communism into a free market economy. Bercea received his MA from the University of Art and Design, in Cluj-Napoca in 2005. Bercea’s work is in several public and private collections worldwide including; Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York, US; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia, US; ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Skovvej; Kistefos-Museet, Jevnaker, NO; Olbricht Collection, Berlin, DE; Space K Museum, Seoul, KR; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK.
Marius Bercea
Loom of Days, 2021
Oil on canvas
190 x 160 cm (75 x 63 ins)
