Artbeat October 2005

Artbeat
Costin Craioveanu revisited

October 2005

(Costin Craioveanu with Leon, ‘my greatest masterpiece’, next to a portrait of Bruce Willis.)

There is nothing pretentious or precious about his painting; he is as far removed from the type who waxes lyrical about art, stand on ceremony and perhaps call himself a great artist - though his talent and skill is unquestionable. He does not associate with other artists and does not have time for the cool circles in which they move.

For him, ‘commercial’ is not a dirty word as it is for many of his peers; he has no qualms about it. His paintings are priced to sell; and the fact is, they do. He estimates that in the last seven years, since he realised his work was good enough to sell, he has sold thousands of paintings. An admirer of a Craioveanu work will be further attracted by the price, rather than discouraged by it.

He is now 30, married to the lead singer of rock band Class, Mihaela Cernea, and they have a four-month-old son called Leon.

Vivid: Your celebrity paintings – are they popular with Romanians?

Costin Craioveanu: My paintings that are an explosion of colour – the celebrity paintings – are not popular with Romanians. They think, ‘Why put Angelina Jolie on the wall? The colours will not match my carpets, or my curtains, in my new villa.’ That is the effects of communism on people – it literally blew their brains out.

Vivid: This Brad Pitt was the cover of our June issue. He has blue hair and a blue face.

Costin Craioveanu: I can’t explain why I made his face and hair blue. I guess that is just how I see him. I have art in my blood; I was born with it in my head, and learned how to do it from my family. My grandfather was a sculptor, my two uncles are painters and ceramicists and my cousins are painters.

‘The picture of Linda Evangelista I found on the Internet. She is very beautiful in reality, but I preferred to paint her as if she is screaming for the dentist.’

Vivid: This picture of Ethan Hawke is going to be sold at the Halloween Ball auction. His mother loves it.

Costin Craioveanu: I hope Ethan likes it too. It was my fourth attempt. The first one I didn’t like, erased it completely, painted a picture of Charlie Chaplin and sold it the very next day.

Vivid: Why did you paint Will Smith?

Costin Craioveanu: I like Will Smith, he’s a great comedy actor, he’s good in action movies, he’s got everything. I like men with balls. That’s the criteria, basically.

Vivid: This picture of Bill Clinton has a Gerhard Richter-esque feel about it. You know those huge canvases he paints? The further away you are, the clearer the image becomes. I must say, he looks kind of pleased with himself.

Costin Craioveanu: He’s looking pleased with himself because he’s just come from a meeting with Monica Lewinsky. You’ll see cicles on many of my paintings – circles being a Romainan Ortodox symbol of love. But the Clinton picture has no circles, because its all about sex, not love.