Barcelona Triangle 1987

Albert Rafols-Casamada made Barcelona Triangle without stating when or how. His colours are mostly blues, with a couple of sandy beige tones, and a triangular patch of green at the bottom, like a mountain. The paint handling is quite loose, not trying to hard, and not too much blending or finesse, more like a wiping and layering of the paint. The texture on the surface has a drag to it, maybe he was using a dry brush, or a rag, and the paint is thin, not very thick. There's a real range of marks in the painting, and that layering and variety of marks makes the image active. There is an unfinished aspect to the painting, with the marks just sitting there. This feels related to the work of Joan Mitchell, not just for the abstract nature, but the feeling that it is a poetic, intuitive response to a place, rather than trying to describe the place itself, or make it look real.