All greatest pieces of human culture (from grandiose architecture to inspiring music or igniting poetry) are meant to bring out the sense of sublimity and purposefulness of life in each of us.

Yet, somehow, the world still remains the Inferno we have made ourselves – with inequity, wars, and destructive mass media influence. Ok, probably, all these aren’t directly our fault, and we think we are on the ‘light side’, but every person has at least once had that itchy thought on the back of his or her mind

And at those moments we have the inner image of an outer force that judges us. It’s often presented in a form of some of the important people in our lives, or even our archetypical ‘forebear.’ In Disappointed storks canvas, the artist addresses such a moment of doubt and creates an almost totemic imagery about our relationship with the Past.

Subject

For thousands of years, in many cultures around the globe – from Egypt to Scandinavia – storks were associated with family and the human soul.

The abstract art master uses metaphorism of this bird in a bold and even illustrative manner to convey the feeling of despair, evolved from the inability to make a real difference to the epoch we’re living in. This feeling is embodied in the semi-abstract conglomerate of forms arranged in the outline of heads and wings of two storks in the upper left corner. The downward direction of their beaks and the tear-like shapes of eyes are clearly decoded as the sign of disconsolate mood.

Composition

The composition is soaked with the melancholic tune. It is manifested in the static symmetry of masses, allowing to grasp the sorrowing sense of stagnation.

At the same time, it has no core, no visual center, similar to the loss of confidence in times of disappointment. Such composition is in accord with the monotonous violet-brownish coloring, enlivened by the sparks of warm orange and fresh blue.

The choice

Gheorghe Virtosu approach might seem slightly over-dramatic. However, the very idea of addressing the concept of disappointment is very important. Disappointment can be the full stop after which we give up. But it can also be the cathartic experience that eliminates the sense of apathy and triggers the new wave of activity, the new courage to face the System. And through his work, the artist proves that the choice, how to use the potential of this emotion is ours.