Abstract

Our paper gives an account of the way in which creativity, representation and receiving in art imply the notion of “game”, and thus encourages the study of painting as game. On the other hand, the paper experiences the aesthetic handling of the concept in question. The game of imagination plays its part in the choice of the work titles, the themes to be depicted, and the means of expression. The study of the game of representation is first carried out at the language’s level, but it is also interested in the performative aspects of the language use, i.e. the compositional arrangement: the array of colours, the assemblage of forms, the sequence of lines, the distribution of textures, the values of light and shade, the proportions, the perception of space, the focal point, etc. Since, in order to be “completed”, painting is conceived as a work awaiting an observer to interpret it, the game of receiving cannot be ignored so long as it is meant to contribute to the accretion of meaning. In order to both reach pertinent conclusions and to provide resourceful background, our analyses insist mainly on Romanian works in which the traditional conventions are broken, the coherence of the composition is disrupted, and hence their difficulty to be decoded and comprehended. Thus, just because of their abstractness, they attain greater impact on the artist and on the receiver, involving them both in this endless, yet unpredictable game.