Large Charcoal Drawing By Angel Alonso

Angel Alonso (1923–1994) Charcoal and pigment on paper Signed lower right, dated 1974, located in Genainvilliers This 1974 work belongs to one of the most defining periods in Angel Alonso's oeuvre, when the artist, living in Genainvilliers, developed a radical language based on black matter, minimal gesture, and verticality. At the center of the paper rises a massive, vertical form, applied with a single, dense gesture. The thickness of the black, its almost charcoal-like texture, contrasts with the fragility of the ochre background. This verticality, emblematic of Alonso's work, functions here as a dark column, an essential sign, akin to an abstract totem. The powerful and rapid brushstrokes reveal the materiality of the gesture: striations, erasures, edges of material and areas of transparency that give the black an almost mineral depth. Signed and dated Genainvilliers 74, this piece constitutes a strong and rare example of Alonso's work in its full maturity, a work where the apparent simplicity hides a fascinating inner intensity.