Angel Alonso

Exiled in France since 1947, a man of strong character and overwhelming painting, inseparable friend of the well-known Spanish philosopher María Zambrano, Ángel Alonso has often been forgotten by the history of Spanish art. Twenty years after the artist's death in Paris, his work reappears in full force and radicalism. Quoting the art historian Francisco Jarauta, "Alonso has mastered the materials and the technique developed by himself which embodied the colors that obsessed him". The exhibition gathers a selection of paintings from 60 ́s to the 90 ́s, a period in which the artist reaches its most radical style.
In the last years of his life and after a period in which he mainly worked with black and white - such as in the series "Desastres", Angel Alonso returns to color "achieving powerful paintings in green, yellow, orange and white " says the writer Juan Carlos Marset about Alonsoʼs work. The exhibition is divided in two rooms: one exclusively composed of the black and white paintings and the other dedicated to works with colored pigments. Ángel Alonso creates colors and works them through texture. “The colors are tenacious, they make you open your eyes wide”, said the painter. The tones exceed the limits of the canvas and mix with the materials, with soil, wood, stones and objects that the artist inserts into the works. "Color goes beyond the canvas, overflows the frame, deletes or ignores the format," explains Marset.
During Alonsoʼs last period, often through the small format paintings, "the texture is fully purified and the color layer becomes porous and subtle." The artist does not abandon his ongoing research on the materials and technique, searching for the essence of painting, as he did throughout his entire career. So, his last two series, one in black on wood and the other in black on white, represent for Marset "the conclusion of his work".
As a man of strong, temperamental and solitary character, Angel Alonso he wanted to stay away from the art market and even declined to exhibit his works in the prestigious Parisian gallery Jeanne Bucher in 1952. His refusal kept him away from commercial venues and supported only by selected private collectors.