The poetry of the painting in the creation of the artist Antonina Sofia Sociu
The Union of Professional Journalists of Romania
After the impressive exhibition in Paris in September 2023, the artist exhibited in Romania at the headquarters of the Primaristic Institute in Bucharest, an elegant and intimate place, a villa with high windows through which the light penetrates powerfully highlighting the beauty of the colors on the canvas.
In this glamorous space, the artist presented her exhibition. And here, for the first time, Antonina Sofia Sociu launched her poems through which she revealed a new pose of hers, that of expressing her emotions and reflections in the fascinating realm created by poetry.
The poetry of pictorial images finds its source of inspiration in the universe of images created through her works and in turn these recreate metaphorical and sensitive universes that the artist Antonina Sofia Sociu transposes into unsuspected literary forms.
This subtle play between the message of the pictorial image and the literary one gives the artist a special value note, distinguishing herself by the ability to convey the therapeutic role that these two forms of artistic manifestation had in her life, especially when she passed at times very difficult to overcome.
“But life is not all pleasure, a single wave had the ability to bring me to my knees in 2012, when the drama of my husband’s death stopped the moment in its tracks, emphasizing the fragility of existence. And so, with a fragmented soul, I wrote. Poems, thoughts and emotions on paper. And then I transposed the voice of my own feelings and emotions into passion and layers of color”, confesses the artist.
The lyricism of the poems of the artist Antonina Sofia Sociu is authentic, doubled by the verisimilitude of the experiences and the disclosure of feelings. The recurring theme of these poems is that love creates, capable of living beyond the limits of earthly life.
“Neither the breeze of the wind, nor the storm of memories
It can’t steal my life
It will slide down my cheek always.” (You know how much I love you).
The moments that urge her not to look back, the hope that her soul mate has not disappeared and the communication beyond the limits of existence with him are reflected in the poem Acceptance. The poetic universe created by the artist is one in which the past is dissolved in the present, through the resistance of passion and eternal love.
“Fateful fate mourns its past
In blue tears and opal sparkles
Now the sky is green and the desert is sweet
The face is an angel, and love without limits.”
The work “Between the worlds”, “Monologue” or “Floral ephemera” transposes the message of these poems into a plastic plane, outlining the poetic universe and the creed of the artist through metaphors and geometric and chromatic symbols. The artist reveals to us through her complexity of both plastic and literary expression that the diversity of expression modes completes and completes the universe of ideas and experiences. The confluence of the two arts contributes to the enhancement of the transmitted message. This is one of hope and revelation that art can create bridges across all experiences, that it can create new universes of expression and discovery.
The artist does not forget, in her journeys imagined in plastic projections, in the reflection of the chromaticism and symbolic geometries that she approaches in her works, of her soul connection with the plastic artist Angela Pașca.
“I fondly remember the soul connection between me and the talented plastic artist Angela Pașca, a source of inspiration and learning. I cannot understate his pivotal role in my journey of creative exploration as he opened doors to the mysteries of fine art in the midst of my academic challenges where time was a precious luxury. At the same time, my connection with Angela Paşca was enriched by the wisdom of the anthroposophist Dr. Lazăr Pasca. Through them, the meaning of art and spirituality was revealed to me, and this unique and wonderful connection remains a precious memory for me, even after years”, confesses the artist.
Thus, in shaping the new “Becoming” exhibition, which was a real surprise for the public through the force and power of seduction of the image, through the semantic multiplicity of the created forms, all intensely lived spiritual experiences contributed enormously.
Thus, creations like “Reborn in the Abyss”, “Around the World Dancing”, “Untamed Soul”, “Just Moments”, “Release”, “Embrace”, “Serenity”, “Tumult”, “Introspection”, are revealing for the message transmitted by the artist Antonina Sofia Sociu.
Through their intrinsic dynamics, through the stylized forms and metaphors of the created images, they dialogue with the viewer, communicating feelings and experiences that are evocative and of intense emotion. Value agreements establish links between expressive contours, the chaining of forms creating a visual unity of the composition.
The decoupage of the pictorial structures, the way in which the artist transforms a figurative motif into a visual synthesis, thereby highlighting the semantics of the invisible world and the lyrical evocation of the subject, demonstrates the artist’s ability to analyze and transpose plastic.
The exhibition as well as the poems that accompany this exciting journey through the life of the artist Antonina Sofia Sociu, share with us her steps on the path of becoming, on the path of transformation through the revelation of the encounter with art, as a form of expression and healing.
Speranța Ștefănescu
historian and art critic
