Ion Ţuculescu was a Romanian expressionist and abstract painter, although professionally he worked as a biologist and a physician. He took up painting later in life, inspired in part by a visit to Paris in 1937, where he saw a Van Gogh retrospective. He expressed fascination for the work of Van Gogh and Gauguin, as well as for the popular art and folklore of his native land. Ţuculescu's early work was marked by the influence of figurative expressionism and the redeployment of themes and subjects from Romanian folklore. As he moved toward abstract expressionism, he continued to make use of decorative elements originating in the folk art of his native region in Southern Romania, while expanding his range into oneiric landscapes and evocative portraits. His artwork became well-known only after his death, when a major exhibition of his work was held at the Dalles Hall in Bucharest and revealed him to have been one of the most important post-war modern artists in Romania, for the depth of emotion and variety of subjects presented in his work. His paintings hang in the Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, as well as in the Craiova Art Museum, and are regularly shown across Romania and abroad.

Totem Alabastru is an example of Țuculescu's deep engagement with the folkloric shapes present in the popular art of Southern Romania. The painting suggests an environment in which natural and man-made objects blur together and become part of the same ecology. The totem appears at once superimposed and yet integral to the collection of shapes around it, evoking the integration of atavistic ritual practices into ordinary, everyday life.