Abstract Composition

Istrati was an internationally acclaimed exponent of the Abstraction Lyrique movement which was the European equivalent to Abstract Expressionism in America, and included Soulages, Schneider, Germain and Lanskoy amongst others. This magnificent example painted during Istrati’s most important period wonderfully demonstrates his powerful style of sensuously nurtured surfaces and supremacy of colour. This was the apogee of the Modernist era which advocated a purely self-referential autonomy of art and in this work we experience the raw physicality of the paint so drammatically that we no longer read the painting as a two dimmensional representation, but as a vibrant and highly energised sculptural object.