Alfredo Alcaín (1936) - Bodegón

Alfredo Alcaín (Madrid, 1936). Original etching with aquafortis and aquatint, 1987. Signed and dated in pencil “A. Alcaín. 87” at the bottom right and numbered 57/100 at the bottom left.

Sheet 75 x 55.5 cm, etched paper with a textured grain, with the print clearly showing the plate impression.

A fruit bowl split into triangles, like a jigsaw puzzle. At the top, grapes, beans, an orange and a pear overflow from the bowl; in a black triangle floats the white silhouette of another pear. Below, a gray aquatint field on which Alcaín has drawn with a line cherries, strawberries, watermelons and bananas, with a large pear reserved in the center. A frieze of tiny objects—palm trees, towers, clouds and fruits—frames the scene from above and along the sides. The aquatint provides the granular gray of the background; the etching gives the fine line and stippling.

Alcaín studied at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts (1953-1958) and later etching and lithography at the National School of Graphic Arts of Madrid, in addition to decoration at the National School of Cinematography. The printmaking has been one of his most constant media. In the sixties and seventies he worked between pop art and critical realism, with a distinctly Madrid popular edge. In the eighties he incorporated cubist references and games between plane and volume: this 1987 fruit bowl is a good example of that period. National Prize for Plastic Arts in 2003. His work is in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the National Library of Spain, the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts and the Buenos Aires Print Museum, among other collections.

Condition: good. Wide, clean margins. Slight natural waviness of the paper. No tears or creases.

Provenance: private collection, Madrid.