Sorin Adam - Joy of Colour

Marrakech, Morocco

History can be also written through art. Places, people, actions outlined on endless canvas complete a nation’s picture. Sorin Adam’s works reveal a piece of history illustrated by oil colours, graphics, crayon in a perfect way. Under the artist brush, the coldest place comes to life and the people are warm in harmony with the Universe. Sorin Adam’s paintings calm the audience and flood it’s soul into a huge noiseless.

Street in Morocco

Since when you start to paint?

Everything started when I was 18 years old because of a crayon box.  My father received it from a painter for another painter. I found this box and I started to draw. I had never drawn or painted before that moment. I made a copy of a paint and so, by the time, I start to love painting. My father took me to Bucharest to study. Here, I’ve met the great artist Vasile Grigore who was one of my most important teachers and helped me a lot.

Landscape from Ciamurlia, Romania

How do you choose your themes?

I love the traditional Romanian painting. There are still a lot to be done in this direction. I don’t reject the western painting, but it is not my main preference. I had the chance to visit the Big Museums worldwide, but I like the Romanian art more. 

Balcic

And the Near Eastern…

Yes. I start to focus on Near Eastern since 1990 when I was in Balcic. I’d known Balcic from the work of the great masters Nicolae Tonitza, Gheorghe Petrascu, Theodor Pallady, Lucian Grigorescu, Iosif Iser. I was impressed by the gorgeous light of the sky, see, stones, by the beautiful houses. Balcic is a cosmopolite place: there are Romanians, Bulgarians, Turks. And so, I started to see more places from the Eastern side of the world. I was in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Morocco. The morocco clothes are like a dream because of its colours: red, green, orange, blue. Wonderful. 

Houses in Morocco

Jerusalem

Village in Egypt

Harbour in Turkey

Do you have any favorite paintings?

Yes. Most of them are Eastern landscapes. I start to do my own collection which comprise not only my works but also paintings of other 35 colleagues. I also use to buy from Art Auction Houses paints of Romanian  famous artists: Corneliu Baba, Stefan Constantinescu, Sabin Pop.

Desert 

Market in Morocco

Landscape in Turkey

Jordan

How hard is to organize an exhibition?

The effort is more about time then money. Before having an exhibition, I choose a theme and I work on it for 2-3 years before I dare to make an exhibition on that issue. Then, it come the material part. The quality of the tools is very important: canvas (for example, at the beginning I used canvas on cardboard) and frames (these are very important because emphasize the painting).

Still life with pomegranate and lamp

English pub

Bullfighting

You exhibited abroad. How was the experience with the foreign public?

I had exhibitions in Florence -Italy, in Wales, in Turkey. It was a very interesting experience and unexpected, I succeed to sell part of paintings.

Istanbul

Holy Sophia, Istanbul

Landscape from London

Bullfighting

Starting with 20^th of February, you started a new exhibition at Bucharest.

Yes, I launched my second art album accompanied with an exhibition of some of my top paintings illustrating different themes. It’s a “mélange”, a mixture: landscapes, still life, nudes.

Still life with pomegranate and lemon

How fast do you sell your paintings?

It was more difficult at the beginnings. Later, I start to sell and my works get to big collectors and so I build up a name in the Romanian market. This make me to establish a minimum limit: 1200 euro for a oil on canvas paintings and 500 euro for a crayon work. The highest price that I received was 3,750 euro, for painting “Balcic” sold at Artmark Auction House.

Bridge from Aswan

Harbour

Street in Santorini, Greece

What do you think an artist need to become famous?

Strong will, permanent work, honesty with himself. The artist must do what he feels, not what he should do or what he has been told to do. There are many painters who do what they have been taught and they loose. This could be my story too, but I said no, I choose to make my own way.

Landscape from Morocco

Biography

Born on 22nd August 1968, Ploiesti 

1996          - Graduate of the Painting Section of the "Luceafarul" Art Academy, professor Teodor Moraru and licensed of the Art Academy of Bucharest

1998 - 2002     - Teaching assistant at "Luceafarul" Art Academy 

                        

Member of Union of Plastic Artists since 1997

Individual exhibitions: 

2011               Frezia Art Gallery - Dej 

2009             Beldiman Palace - Iasi 

                     Art Gallery of Bucharest Municipality 

2008             National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

2007             I.C.R. - Istanbul ISIK Gallery 

2006             National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

2004             National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

2003             Museum of the Art and History of Bucharest 

2002             National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

1999             National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

1998             Corropoli Abruzzo - Italy 

1997             Florence - Italy 

1995-1996    Art Gallery of Bucharest

1994             Art Gallery of Bucharest 

1993             Art Gallery of Bucharest 

Group exhibitions: 

2010             Romanian Cultural Institute - Istanbul 

2010           Grigore Vasile, Traian Bradean, Augustin Costinescu, Sorin Adam - National Military Circle Bucharest Art gallery 

2009            Vasile Grigore & Sorin Adam - Occident Gallery, Bucharest 

2009          Andrei Romocean, Dan Constantinescu, Mircea Doinaru, Emanoil Mazilu, Sorin Adam - Art Gallery of Bucharest

2009           Winter Salon - Sutu Palace, Bucharest 

2002            National Art Salon of Bucharest 

                    International Fair of Fine Arts Bucharest 

2001             National Art Salon Bucharest 

1999             National Pastel Salon - National Military Circle Bucharest Art Gallery 

1998             Gheorghe Petrascu Bienal - Targoviste 

1997             Winter Salon - Pitesti 

1996             Gheorghe Petrascu Targoviste 

                     Apollo Art Gallery, Bucharest 

1994-1995    Bucharest Salon - Bucharest National Theatre 

1993             National Salon of Youth National Theatre of Bucharest

1992             National Salon of Graphic - II Falcone Montepascali (Grossetto) 

1991          International Exhibition Amicii del Pomero (prize and medal) RHO Milano Italy

1990             Graphic Salon RHO Milano - Italy 

                    

The royal family of Qatar purchases Paul Cezanne’s Card Players for a record $250 million

“Card players”, Paul Cezanne

The work is one in a series of five, but until now was the only one remaining in private collection.

Royal family of Qatar

Vanity Fair reported that Qatar's royal family bought one of the 5 existing versions of Cezanne's 'The Card Players' for over $250 million. Forbes published today that it was Josh Baer of BaerFaxt who first broke it in 2011 the purchase of Cezanne's Card Players for $250 million from the estate of Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos.

Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Paul Cezanne

While in school, he enrolled in the free drawing academy in Aix, which he attended intermittently for several years. In 1858, he graduated from the Collège Bourbon, where he had become an intimate friend of his fellow student Emile Zola. Cézanne entered the law school of the University of Aix in 1859 to placate his father but abandoned his studies to join Zola in Paris in 1861. For the next twenty years, Cézanne divided his time between the Midi and Paris. In the capital, he briefly attended the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro, whose art later came to influence his own. In 1862, Cézanne began long friendships with Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His paintings were included in the 1863 Salon des Refusés, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon. The Salon itself rejected Cézanne’s submissions each year from 1864 to 1869.

In 1870, following the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, Cézanne left Paris for Aix-en-Provence and then nearby L’Estaque, where he continued to paint.

The workshop of Paul Cezanne from Aix-en-Provence

He made the first of several visits to Pontoise in 1872; there, he worked alongside Pissarro. He participated in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. From 1876 to 1879, his works were again rejected for the Salon. Cézanne showed again with the Impressionists in 1877 in their third exhibition. At that time, Georges Rivière was one of the few critics to support his art. In 1882, the Salon accepted his work for the first and only time. Beginning in 1883, Cézanne resided in the South of France, returning to Paris occasionally.

In 1890, Cézanne exhibited with the group Les Vingt in Brussels and spent five months in Switzerland. He traveled to Giverny in 1894 to visit Monet, who introduced him to Auguste Rodin and the critic Gustave Geffroy. Cézanne’s first solo show was held at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris in 1895. From this time, he received increasing recognition. In 1899, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris for the first time. The following year, he took part in the Centennial Exhibition in Paris. In 1903, the Berlin and Vienna Secessions included Cézanne’s work, and in 1904 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris. That same year, he was given a solo exhibition at the Galerie Cassirer, Berlin. Cézanne died on October 22, 1906, in Aix-en-Provence.

 "Selfportrait", Paul Cezanne

One of the most influential artists in the history of twentieth-century painting, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) has inspired generations of modern artists. Generally categorized as a Post-Impressionist, his unique method of building form with color and his analytical approach to nature influenced the art of Cubists, Fauvists and successive generations of avant-garde artists.

Ava Serjoie - Harmony of Colours

"Self biography"
100x100cm, acrylics on canvas
FOR SALE

A self biography, the story of my life, an airplane that connects me to the people I love, my connection to security but also what separates me from all that is close to my heart. The scarf blowing in the wind, with my hair, which is also the branches of the tree. This feeling of being blown away, as if I can never have my feet really fixed on the ground. The cherry earrings, the beautiful childhood, that every small thing was a treasure and source of happiness. My huge necklace, my eastern jewelry, some thing I can not wear in the foreign land, I had to leave it back home, and now there is only the memory of it once on my neck. The gold fish, the Iranian new year. The hope for change, that things will get better. The tulips, 5 a symbol for the People who were killed in the 2009 demonstration in Iran. The apple, so beautiful but which has changed our destiny forever.

"Long lost memory"
FOR SALE

Painting and poetry have long been interwoven in the history of Persian art. Poetry has been a source of great inspiration through out the history of art. In my paintings, dream, fantasy, reality and poetry come together. Emotions, aroused by contemporary Persian poetry intertwined with childhood recollections, memories of all that is gone, all that we have lived, experienced; all that is so close to our heart, but so far away out of our reach.

"Home is where the heart is"
100x100cm, acrylics on canvas
FOR SALE

Where is my home. The English say, home is where the heart is. But, my heart was never so homeless. So torn apart between the people and places that I love.               

"Grandma's garden"
FOR SALE

A world where every cherry was a ruby earring, and grandma’s garden was that sacred place where nothing could shatter your happiness. A colorful memory, of a nostalgia for how every thing once was, or how you remember every thing was combined with the emotions and feelings aroused by the happenings in the society.

"Praying to nature"
FOR SALE

Since when you start to paint and how you discover your calling for painting?

With 12 I knew that I definitely want to become an artist. I used to play the Piano, I loved drama and painted in every single opportunity I got. I had a sketch book that was filled with my drawings. Later I gave Music and acting up for painting.

"New light"
FOR SALE

How do you choose your themes? What inspire you?

Painting and poetry have long been interwoven in the history of Persian art. Poetry has been a source of great inspiration for many artists through out the history of art. In my paintings, dream, fantasy, reality, and poetry come together. Emotions, aroused by contemporary Persian poetry intertwined with childhood recollections, memories of all that is gone, all that we have lived, experienced; all that is so close to our heart, but so far away out of our reach. Persian and Eastern paintings, such as Indian miniatures, with their vast variety of colors and fine patterns are a great source of inspiration as well as model.

"Grandma's garden"
FOR SALE

"Autumn"
FOR SALE

What do you try to transmit to the public through your paintings?

Nature is to be seen in every single of my work. I love trees and respect nature, I admire how such tiny small flowers manage to get through the hardest winter and as April comes suddenly everywhere pop up delicate small flowers as if it had never been winter. I respect their strength, their patience to wait for the right time. That is why I often paint symbols from nature. My pictures tell stories, every element has a meaning for me and there is a reason it is presented in my work.

"Summerhere"
FOR SALE 

                                                     

Is it a paint you care most?

I love art and live with it every day. Art for me is not just what we create but how we live, our actions, our thoughts, our hopes, fears, our values. Art is not just what we practice or an skill it is what we believe in.

  

“Cypress”
FOR SALE

"Where we want to go"
100x100cm, acrylics on canvas
FOR SALE

The above painting titled, "Where we want to go", is a mixed media, painting with collage from my ticket from my various trips. It shows our search for this ultimate place, where we want to find happiness, or security, or love or success. But in our hearts we kind of keep comparing things to our past, with what we remember from our childhood.

“Cypress garden”

FOR SALE

What can you tell us about your work technique?

I mostly paint with Acrylics, but also oil and water color. I love to sit and recite to myself, like people who tend to sit and talk about sweet memories, or read poems, I do this visually for myself. For this I use water and poster colour. They lend themselves for small size paintings. My large size paintings are in Acrylic and oil. Acrylic I use more often lately since it dries much faster.

  “In the darkness hours of the night”
FOR SALE

What are the prices of your paintings?

My painting's prices range from 500 Euros for my small paper size paintings to 5000 Euros.

"Garden"

FOR SALE

What are the constraints of an artist from your point of view?

I believe in this post modern Era there are no real constraints for artists when we look at it from a professional point of view. Artists can decide to work in and with any media they like, they can people or even other artisans to bring out their concepts for them. However, politics and financial situations can still play a very negative role in artists work and artistic expression.

“Come to my garden”

FOR SALE

Since the Revolution in Iran in 1979, executions, of active students, intellectual and other innocent people fighting for democracy has been a constant tragic part of the contemporary history of Iran. In 2006 once more I was totally torn apart by the news of the death of another student in prison. This news, with the remembrance of the serial murders of the intellectuals in the 90s inspired the following painting 'chained garden'. Ahmad Shamlou (an Iranian contemporary poet) in one of his poems tells to Khomeini, "you spoke with sickle with the jasmines" .

“Chained garden”
FOR SALE

Trees in my work are a symbol of freedom just as in nature. They grow and spread their branches and grow their leaves. Spread their shadows and give us the pleasure of enjoying and using every thing they have. Chained garden, imprisoned trees, their branches have been cut, their leaves from all this oppression, have turned yellow. This is the image of a garden deteriorating, a nation dying under oppression but still trying to stand high.

      

Speaking with my executor

The following collages are part of a series of works inspired but the tragic news of executions in Iran and also massacre of people because of religion. They are a series of dialogues between the victim and the executor. The texts are in Persian but a short translation has been given for the title.

"Its as if you were never in love"

"After my death" I will give you my eyes, so you can see the world through them, after my death I will give you my lips, to sing for democracy with them. After my death I will give you my nose to smell the flowers, after my death I will give you my feet to walk in a free land with them.

"Will you miss me after killing me?"

  and "after they have killed us" (you and me), they shall pray for our souls

I wish I could give birth to all who were killed this year

The news of mass executions and torture and rape in prisons, would not leave me in peace and were the inspiration for the above painting. My yearning, my longing as a women artist to be able to give birth again to all the innocent, to all who were killed for fighting for freedom, a word that has become only a graffiti on the wall. My heart bleeds with pain, while the sky cries with me, witnessing all this injustice.

“I wish I could give birth to all who were killed this year”

120x150cm, acrylic on canvas

FOR SALE

What does an artist need to become famous? Is it enough talent? 

Talent plays an important role, not just for artistic creation but also how to get to know the right people and to do right things to get the right attention. However, a good manager, a good advisor would definitely help to get the artist on the right track.

How you would define yourself?

I am sociable, but also shy, I can be loud and party but need my snake house to get into and sulk. I love poetry and live with it, but enjoy Rock. I am not interested in politics but am disturbed and burdened by social problems and injustice. I can't change the world but like to try to bring to spot light what needs to be changed. I miss hope but can't live in, I love the world but so many things disturb me. 

I love my refuge in my home amongst my plants when every thing gets too much.

BIOGRAPHY

Born on 14^th of April 1975 in Teheran.

EDUCATION

2003   Masters of Arts in Fine Arts, Alzahra University ,Tehran, Iran

1998   Bachelors of Arts in Fine Arts, Azad University ,Tehran, Iran

HONORS & RECOGNITIONS

2004       Institute for Promotion of Visual Art – Honorable Mention

2004       Municipality of the City of Tehran – Certificate of Appreciation

2003       Cultural Department of Municipality of the City of Tehran – Distinguished Service

2003       Tehran International Fajr Theatre Festival – Honorable Mention

2003        First Conference on Iranian Islamic Art – Certificate of Appreciation

2003        Alzahra University – Valedictorian of Graduate

                Program and Gold Coin

2002        Alzahra University – Outstanding Graduate Student

                 Research and Gold Coin

1997         Kish Institute for TTC (Teachers Training Course) – Certificate of Completion

1992        Tehran Youth Painting Competition – First Place

1990        Tehran Youth Painting Competition – First Place

ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

2004  a video installation, titled: “The Last Supper”

2010   Installation "We are not numbers"

GROUP EXHIBITIONS HIGHLIGHTS

2011           31 Friedberger Kustausstellung

2009         Almere kunstlinier Holland

2006        Kunsthall Sweden

2005       Bahman Cultural Center

2005       Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art

2005       Shafagh Art Gallery

2005       Shirazi Art Gallery

2005       Hilesluis museum Holland

2003       Institute for the Promotion of Visual Arts – Tehran

2002       UNESCO “Women, Art and Dialogue among Civilizations” – Oman

2001        Center for Dialogue among Civilizations – Tehran

2000       Painters Society – House of Artists, Tehran

2000       Exhibition of Iranian Women Artists –

               University of California, Berkley

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011     Archive gallery Germany

2003     Ibn Sina Gallery Iran

2001     Tehran Gallery Iran

2001     Arian Gallery Iran

1999     Niavaran Cultural Center Iran

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Iranian Painters Society

Institute for the Promotion of Visual Arts

N.B. Some of the works displayed above are for sale. If you want details about the painter and his paintings, please use email/telephone mentioned in Contact section.