Drawings that taste of antiquity. An exhibition of Ciprian MureÅŸan (exhibited with Botticelli) in Rome.

From today, March 13 to May 1, 2024, theCentral Institute for Graphics in Rome will open the exhibition Double Shadow, a solo show by Ciprian MureÅŸan, curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto and Maura Picciau, Director of the Central Institute for Graphics, and realized in collaboration with the Academy of Romania-Romanian Cultural Institute and under the patronage of the Romanian Embassy.

On display will be about 24 works on paper of different formats, as well as 9 photographic works and a sculpture. On the occasion of the exhibition, some of the original drawings from which the artist drew inspiration will also be on display exceptionally, including two very valuable Heads of Young Men by Sandro Botticelli that have not been exhibited to the public for more than 20 years, some male torsos by Jacopo Pontormo, and a charcoal by Jacopo Tintoretto. The drawings are part of a series, started in 2013 with a book on Bas Jan Ader, and linked to the myth of the Dutch artist who drew for four years on the same piece of paper, each time erasing the previous drawing before starting a new one. MureÅŸan, inspired by this work, drew on the same piece of paper without erasing previous drawings, copying images from art books and superimposing them to create a completely new image. The photographs on display were made with a pinhole camera, taking advantage of the darkroom to create undefined images with long exposure times.

Ciprian Mureşan (Dej, 1977), a multifaceted Romanian artist, works using various media, from video to sculpture, drawing to photography to installations, and has numerous exhibitions to his credit, including solo shows at Centre Pompidou in Paris (2019, with Șerban Savu), SMAK in Ghent (2019), and Tate Modern in London (2012, with Anna Molska). The project in Chalcography represents the third solo exhibition in Rome for the artist, after those at the Academy of France, Villa Medici (2018), the Pietro Canonica Museum (2016) and the exhibition at La Fondazione (2019, with Geta Bratescu, Adrian Ghenie, Șerban Savu) thus consolidating his personal relationship with the city. Moreover, in 2009, Mureşan represented his nation at the Venice Biennale (he also exhibited in 2017), while for the 2024 edition he was chosen as curator of the project with Șerban Savu for the Romanian pavilion.

“According to different techniques starting from ancient art, which he subjects to a critical and visual sifting that is as punctual and respectful as it is conscious and autonomous. Thus, watching MureÅŸan operate one wonders how much our historical heritage still speaks to us today, whether it guides us, troubles us deeply, and involves us beyond its eminent, sometimes looming history. One wonders if and how much the image of a celebrated and historicized work of art is the bearer of truth, related to the present,” Maura Picciau, Director of the Central Institute for Graphic Design explains how MureÅŸan is an artist who loves to work.

“The reproduction of art through books led to the popularization of art in general, but paradoxically, access to art catalogs, as well as access to originals in Western European museums, was limited in my country because of the ”wall“ that separated the Eastern Bloc from the rest of the world. Until 1989 (the year of the fall of the communist regime), reproduction in Romania represented a connection to the universal, and it was from this concept that I focused on copying art books as a process of study and creation. In the case of the collaboration with the Central Institute for Graphics, through privileged access to original drawings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, my work acquires a new perspective,” the artist himself explains.

“The result is an exhibition that starts from drawing but becomes pure conceptual art,” explains curator Pier Paolo Pancotto. “In fact, MureÅŸan does not copy from the ancient, rather he questions the value of the image and how much the repetition of it risks making it lose the semantic value it should carry. A kind of ”emptying“ of the image due to its excessive multiplication.”

Drawings that taste of antiquity. An exhibition of Ciprian MureÅŸan (exhibited with Botticelli) in Rome.

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