Artwork
Natură moartă cu ceas
Natură moartă cu ceas is an unspecified painting by Alexandru Ciucurencu. It dates from 1941 and is held in the collection of the National Museum of Art of Romania.
About this work
The background has thick, uneven brushstrokes in blue, gray, and yellow, making it look textured.
This painting shows a clock on a bright yellow background. The clock face is white with black hands and numbers, but it’s painted roughly. The background has thick, uneven brushstrokes in blue, gray, and yellow, making it look textured.
The date "1941" is scrawled in black paint near the bottom right. The clock looks broken or unfinished, with messy lines and splashes of color around it.
If you like this style, look up impasto next.
Overview
Alexandru Ciucurencu’s 1941 composition titled “Natură moartă cu ceas” presents a solitary clock set against a vivid yellow field. The clock’s white face bears black numerals and hands, rendered in a loose, unfinished manner, while the surrounding surface is built up with thick, uneven strokes of blue, gray and yellow that give the canvas a tactile quality.
Subject & Meaning
The central motif—a timepiece—suggests contemplation of temporality, yet its fragmented, almost broken appearance hints at disruption or ambiguity in the perception of time. The stark contrast between the precise clock elements and the chaotic background may reflect a tension between order and disorder, a theme resonant in the early 1940s.
Technique & Style
Ciurencu employs a heavy impasto technique, applying paint in dense layers that create a textured surface. Broad, gestural brushwork in the background contrasts with the more controlled, albeit rough, rendering of the clock, emphasizing a dialogue between expressive abstraction and representational detail.
History & Provenance
Created in 1941, the work belongs to the period when Ciurencu was exploring the interplay of color and form within still‑life subjects. The painting bears the artist’s handwritten date in black pigment near the lower right edge, confirming its authorship and dating.
Artist & collection
Artist
Alexandru Ciucurencu painted scenes from everyday life and the human body in the mid-20th century.
