Stefan Pelmus (1949) - TOTEM

In Totem (1969), Ștefan Pelmuș invites the viewer into a world where image becomes symbol, and symbol becomes a passage towards the unknown. Executed in oil on plywood, the work belongs to the artist’s deeply personal visual universe, where archaic signs, spiritual references and ancestral motifs converge in an enigmatic and intensely poetic language.
Pelmuș’s totemic imagery seems to belong to a time beyond chronology—a realm of ancient memories, invisible connections and worlds that remain just beyond the reach of reason. His symbols do not simply describe; they suggest, evoke and invite contemplation, like fragments of a forgotten manuscript waiting to be deciphered.
There is something profoundly moving in this encounter. The work speaks quietly of humanity’s enduring search for meaning, belonging and transcendence, opening a space for reflection in which the familiar gives way to mystery.
More than an image, Totem becomes an inner journey: a glimpse into an ancestral world, at once mysterious and strangely familiar, where the visible and the unseen seem to touch.