cartoonist,to whom the festival has dedicated an exhibitionat the town hall.The intellectual
restlessness, the permanent need of expression within the many fields of the human
spirit, the tireless search for new ways of expression, have truned at Stefan
Popa into pencil's spontaniety, nib's precision, oil's toughness and shining
, all of them called to translate into intuition-accsible pictures the greatness
and the decadence of the human existence. The young artist, inginiously
serving the caricature, ennbales it trough profoundly human contents;humour is
sometimes a very serious matter ...Is Stefan Popa the Romanian Daumier of the 20th century? He has the viguor of the touch, th rigorousity of the psychological
analysis and accusatory causticity."Thus, in himself, finally two years of
distance haven't changed him."But there is also the man made upof oil stripes which never come out, the man painting the walls, his own head used as a rol, the dog held in a leash by the tree he's just watered on, the people prostrating themselves, bearing on their bottoms the footprint of their idol: Moliere's pen, in a way , or those of La Bruyere and Beaumarchais, taken into account by Daumier's brush ... A pessimistic philosophy, if you want, but certainly not a desperate one. Let's hope Popa does not take Kafka's road ... Because there is also the woman with the glittering halo, who doesn't follow the mark traced by her conscience master. " Do not go too far, maybe, but go all alone." And, if possible, without blinkers : maybe this is what Stefan Popa is teaching us.
Stefan Popa has a firm touch, a sharp observation, and a spirit kept alive , all serving a deep way of thinking: the fight against war an mistery,which he tirelessly unmasks."There is no happiness without freedom and no freedom without courage."These key-words of Pericle's can be turned by Popa into his own, as he deserves.
It has been said that Stefan Popa is a Romanian Daumier of the 20th cetury. Just like Daumier, Popa's has the robustness of the touch, the exactness of the psychological analysis and the accusatory causticity.
If I had never met Popa, I would never believed what's being told about him.
If La Bruyere and Balzac were still alive, they would have found a genius illustrator in Popa's, the first for the "Chracters" and the second for the "Human Comedy".
If the field of graphic arts, the young Romanian artist Stefan Popa has achieved an international reputation, earning himself a special place.Between the excess of surrealism and the coldness of black humour, he gave noble qualities to the satiric drawing, together with a feeling which is closer to philosophy than the simple caricature.
"There is no happiness without freedom and no freedom without courage." This key-sentence of Pericle's,Popa's can proudly carry on further.
