Untitled

Painter, print artist and draughtsman, Charles Tyrell is one of the main representative of the Irish contemporary art scene. He graduated from National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 1974, and rapidly developed a taste for meticulously selected supports for his pictorial practice. In the 1980s for instance, he salvaged wood from the St Peter’s Church (Dublin) during its demolition to use as panels on which to paint. The artist has carried his reflection on sourced material ever since, multiplying his tools and approaches, taking, later on, a particular interest in painting on aluminium. Untitled is an early piece of the Irishman’s career. The abstract composition is based on a balanced structure, guided, mainly, by a mirrored reflection along a diagonal that goes from the lower left corner to the top right corner. Along this intangible line, the tonalities of the colours switch from bright to dark, warm to cold, as if half of the composition was in the shade, and the other half in the sun. The arched burgundy stroke that stretches through the lower half on the painting is a stand out feature that can be found in every one of Tyrell’s pieces from 1979.