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Sandra Blow

Composition Black & Red
1952
Oil and mixed media on canvas
30 x 24 ins (76.2 x 61.0 cms)

signed, dated 1952 and inscribed verso

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Provenance:

Private Collection, Italy

Austin Desmond Fine Art, London

Private Collection, London

Blow's Composition Black & Red is a ground breaking early work which founds the vocabulary of her much celebrated sixties portfolio. Far from being an austere exercise in geometric abstraction, Blow's creative process is an involved earth-bound one. Lavishly applied with oil paint mixed with sand, cement and ash, Blow evidently delights in the process of making paintings. She methodically layers thickened oil paste to the surface of the canvas to create a texturally rich experience.

Almost a grisaille low relief aside from its burst of red, Composition Black & Red has an arresting physical presence. Its constituent forms are as much an assimilation of what Blow learned from Alberto Burri with his use of unconventional 'found' materials, as they are a personalised response to the natural environment. The year Blow spent living in Rome with Burri in 1947 was pivotal to her career. Their love affair furnished Blow with more than fond memories; it opened her impressionable eyes to a new way of making art.

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