Charcoal Paintings

Drawings and prints 1972 – 1994.

In 1972 “…I began working with a common form used by artists for many years now, probably first in Malavich’s work, the grid and the cross. I had used these in my early abstractions from landscape at Bath in the 50s, the horizontal and vertical construction, but now began to work on the grid form. I drew with charcoal on canvas, and then wash and fixed the charcoal with cellulose acetate, often using the resist line, which I had used in the early optical work. I think one always brings some things with you from work done before, not always consciously but I think it is inescapable. One looks back a long way, and edges forward.”

Extract from interview with Richard Allen in 1998, from the University of Wales, Retrospective exhibition catalogue 1998 and Offer Waterman ‘Richard Allen a retrospective’ exhibition catalogue 2008.