Moments from the biography and artistic activity of the painter
Silviu Traian Costin (1904-1986)
Cuvinte cheie: Şcoala băimăreană de pictură, biografie, pictura plein-air, mişcarea artistică de amatori, secolul XX, Transilvania Keywords: Free Painting School of Baia Mare, biography, plein-air painting, amator art movement, XX th century, Transylvania
Prin intermediul lucrării de faţă se atrage atenţia atât asupra unei biografii interesante, cea a profesorului Silviu Traian Costin (1904-1986), cât şi asupra activităţii sale artistice, care poate fi aşezată, conform mai multor referinţe critice, formulate deja înaintea noastră, deasupra categoriei amatorismului, fiindu-i deschis, în multe privinţe domeniul propriu-zis al artei picturii. Cursant al Şcolii băimărene libere de pictură, în anii 1923-1926, cel puţin, Silviu Traian Costin şi-a însuşit optim, chiar cu profesionalism, putem spune, conceptele maeştrilor săi recunoscuţi, Thorma János şi Ziffer Sándor, le-a aplicat în creaţia sa, cu interesante prelucrări şi modernizări personale. Manifestările sale artistice au realmente o notă distinctivă, ceea ce le conferă o valoare plastică încă actuală, pe care nu o putem neglija.
The present paper highlights the interesting biography of professor Silviu Traian Costin (1904-1986) as well as his artistic activity which can be situated, according to several critical references, priory formulated, above the category of amateurism. Taking the courses of the Free Painting School of Baia Mare between 1923- 1926, at least, Silviu Traian Costin has impeccably appropriated the concepts of his acknowledged masters, Thorma János şi Ziffer Sándor. He became aware of the most modern orientations and experiences in the history of European painting, through its professors and peers, and he even experimented with them but he maintained, guided by a purely esthetic option, a traditional, figurative-realistic direction with evident modernizations induced in his creation by the local plain-airism which oscillated between impressionist, postimpressionist, fauvist etc. means of expression and the principles of traditional post-Renaissance drawing and painting – classicism, realism even romanticism. The turning towards such approaches, which included drawing from nature, realised with the utmost talent and professionalism, without exceeding the canons of figurative painting, was due mainly to Thorma János, whose influence shapes Silviu Costin’s overall artistic conception, but not his painting manner and technique. Without trying to stand out through its modernity, the painting of Silviu Costin was far from being obsolete, his reviewers having surprised the renewals to which he subjected his works. Artistic influences of high quality are reflected in his creation, acquired mainly from Baia Mare, but later developed into an artistic universe of real individuality.