The Father's Walk
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- The Father's Walk
- Plimbarea tatălui
- 1975
- pencil on paper
- 65 × 88 cm
This drawing evokes the presence of the artist’s father as something of a preliminary goodbye to him before her emigration in 1977. Here, as elsewhere, the picture plane’s organization relies on the multiplication of spatial and temporal units. In Coulin’s practice, much like in that of her colleagues, dynamism is conveyed through the aggregation of registers that link past and present, current events and past episodes, visual perception and images imprinted upon memory. The left side of the image shows a rural scene with an empty field and a sheep enclosure, while the right side contains signs of modernization embodied by the conspicuous presence of electric poles in an urban setting. The composition evokes the artist’s memory of her parents and of her childhood spent in a village outside of the town of Pitești. Later on, together with her father, who was an electrical engineer, she would take long “ritual” walks to visit her mother’s grave, passing by the enchanting landscape surrounding her former (first) home. M.R.