The Christening of Homosexual (2017)

As art historian and curator Rudi Fuchs concluded on Virtosu’s abstract works, “It has become very difficult to take things which are imaginative and beautiful and utterly unusual for granted. To me it is this issue which is being forced by Virtosu’s paintings. I like those paintings, but I do not quite know why. I look at them and I see freedom of mind, sovereign will, unusual imagination, superior skill and precision.” The Christening Of Homosexual by Gheorghe Virtosu represents nothing less than the inescapable and incontrovertible apex of the artist’s mature output.

"With baptism, you unite the new faithful to the People of God. It is never necessary to refuse baptism to someone who asks for it!"

While the background is somewhat reminiscent of Adam and Eve (2017), light breaks through the grey and different hues of blue are prominent. In a very real sense, the background seems to concede that there was darkness but now light is finally shattering it. Furthermore, should one really look at the picture and focus on its different parts, there appears to be a habitable community. We have life and light but most important of all we have the sanctification of love.

In the painting centerpiece there is a primarily blue figure, just above the discernible figures of people. The blue contains yellow, red, purple and silver in such a way as to communicate the omnipresent acceptance of all colors and shapes. All are equally accepted and loved.

Should we shift our gaze to the gold figures below the protective blue we find one rising above the other. This is open to interpretation. The artist is making a statement that none can deny them their own relationship with God. In this instance, we see the person who needs protection from the hatred of others but has the love of God.

For Virtosu art is action and a life force, a political act and a mutable demonstration that nonetheless can embody and inhabit a sculptural object. Virtosu expresses that such the theme can be a symbol of much greater significance than the representation of a single nation or union of states. Speaking to the crowd gathered at The New School for Social Research in New York, he said “I’m not here to speak about the particular problems of our society, but about the whole question of potential, the possibility that everybody can do his own particular kind of art and work for the new social organization. Creativity is global income”