Alan Charlton

Alan Charlton - Broad Cross Painting

Technique: Acrylic on canvas

Artist Biography: The paintings of Alan Charlton (Sheffield, England, 1948) are studies based on the color gray, which he makes under a systematic method with which he calculates its size and structure. By eliminating any superfluous detail, Charlton's canvases draw attention to the space in which they are shown by their sobriety and balance. This redefines the traditional relationship between artwork and viewer, as it is the space, as well as the arrangement of the canvases, that charge it with meaning. The precision of Charlton's canvases contrasts with the varying conditions of the different environments in which they are presented, hence his paintings offer the viewer a very different visual experience depending on the space in which they are placed. His work is part of museums and public collections such as the Arts Council Collection (London, UK), Contemporary Art Collection "La Caixa" (Barcelona), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), MAM Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France), Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli (Turin, Italy), Museum Abteiberg, (Mönchengladbach, Germany), the MuHKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (Antwerp, Belgium) or the collection of the Tate Gallery (London, UK).

 

The paintings of Alan Charlton (Sheffield, England, 1948) are related to the minimalist movement. The construction of his pieces is always the same. Alan Charlton employs a systematic method in which, starting from 4.5 cm modules, he creates structures that evolve by their own internal logic. This creative process defines the size and structure of the piece whose dynamism contrasts with the immobility of the gray tones of the canvases. For the British artist this chromatic choice is related to the idea of immobility of the piece, as a fixed point in constantly changing exhibition spaces.