Ediorials - Interview with Cornelia Gherlan

Tell me a few words about the beginnings of your
career. What teachers gave you a direction / supported you?

The beginnings were under the sign of graphic because
I liked pencils, lines, nibs, the continuation was under the sign of color,
contrast, expression of the gesture. I loved my teacher, even though demanding
and harsh, because he fit with the program I had proposed for myself, rigor and
discipline of study. Bradean was an excellent sketcher and a good example to follow in
the art of composition.

Why
painting and nothing else?

Painting chose me and the other way around. The figurative
in my graphic is sometimes mixed with the abstract, but in my compositions made
in oil on canvas I feel free in experiencing the abstract, and nature is the
one that inspires me.

Contemporary art passes through different phases
without my mentioning them. Experiments in installations are still in fashion, I
don’t know if the classical technique is preferred (oil, acrylic on canvas) or
hyper-realist representations, but what is important is that they try, the
search.

What is your favorite theme? What inspires you
the most?

The landscape transforms, moves towards the
abstract. Often times, different states of the soul dictate how to arrange to
colors, but other times, I am very careful with the composition, a certain
order can be read in my work.

Do you use more painting technique or are you faithful just to one? Do you happen
to come back to a painting or go all the way with the theme you chose form the
beginning?

In painting, I prefer oil because
it can be modeled, structured, it doesn’t dry quickly. In graphic, I use
everything at hand, stain, cerapastel, gouache, acrylic, crayons. I often
come back to a work, looking for new expressions, I change it sometimes, turn
the work on all its facets, I play.

What do you think of Romanian contemporary art and young artists? Do you
think you can live from art nowadays?

I don’t think you can live from painting, or it’s
very hard. You are free to experiment in the moment in which you’re sure about
the material part. The road is very important in searches, even knowing a way
that can bring pleasure, the search itself. In the end, the road finds you, the
artist.

What do you think about the fact that some painters would rather choose “in
fashion” styles and don’t follow their own road?

It’s like rope walking – imitation, lack of
originality, in the end, what remains is the whole road that you took with the
honesty of an artist, his whole life-work, all the searching, all his
becomings. We all transform and change, but remain faithful to the true, honest
endeavor

Tell us about your most important exhibition.
What future plans do you have?

My last exhibition was a graphic one GLISSANDO,
in which I approached two ways of expression, one almost illustrative, the
other slightly abstract, in any case, I enjoyed both of them. I still don’t
have a well-defined project yet, I’ll see.

Interview made by DanaArtGallery in collaboration
with Laura Avramescu Cherciu