Another child prodigy artist has washed ashore in Tampa Bay. This time, it’s the now twenty-three year old Romanian artist, Alexandra Nechita, whose work is being exhibited in a Tampa gallery.Called a young master when she burst onto the California art scene at the tender age of eight, Nechita’s colorful creations were soon being snapped up by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The media took notice and began calling her the ‘Petite Picasso.’
A close look at her work (http://www.alexandranechita.net/) shows what a terrible disservice this is to Picasso and his genius. Garish colors and distorted figures do not make one a masterful artist. Picasso and others like him first mastered the many nuances of realism before feeling accomplished enough to take liberties with form and color. They all started out drawing the right way. Nechita’s early teachers chided her for not drawing the “right way.”
Apparently not content to learn basic technique and composition like most artists, Nechita took advantage, instead, of a hype-based marketing strategy. Blessed by Oprah, Rosie, and others, her art became wildly popular, with original pieces now selling upwards of $95,000.
This makes Miss Nechita a famous and wealthy artist. It does not make her a great one.
