El mar desconegut 1947

Angel Planells made this drawing, El mar desconegut, with pencil on paper. It’s about taking a journey to an unknown place, maybe into the subconscious. I find myself immediately drawn to the floating form, that sort of kidney bean shape, hovering in the middle of the composition. Inside is a tiny landscape. The clouds, the sky, even the water are rendered with such precision and care. The drawing is full of contrasting textures and tones from the soft clouds to the sharply defined rocks. The woman with flowing hair could be a muse or a siren, luring the man in the boat to the unknown sea. It reminds me of the symbolist painters like Moreau, who constructed similar dreamlike images, full of symbolism and strange juxtapositions. Ultimately, the drawing's strength lies in its ambiguity and open-endedness, inviting each viewer to project their own interpretations and associations onto its enigmatic imagery.