Drawings. Alan Glass. Paris, 1954-1962

Carlos de Laborde-Noguez et al.

ISBN: 978-84-128466-1-4

Year: 2025

Pages: 392

Illustrations: 433

Binding: in hardcover lined with French dust jacket

Size: 24.5 x 33 cm

Published by: Madrid, El Viso Editions

Alan Glass's early drawings have the appearance of wisps of smoke about to take solid form, of stone coming to life and metamorphosing, of plants and animals combining. Beginning in 1954, Glass used the newly invented ballpoint pen to create extraordinarily intricate and detailed images. Using variations in pressure and density, he conjured forms that were sometimes lush and thick, sometimes light and mounded. Here, inert matter came to life, and rocks transformed into plants or avian creatures. At times, he used such a profusion of ink that the drawings almost took on the texture of paintings. In these works, the thin paper was drenched in shades of intense blue, in keeping with Glass's recurring use of lapis lazuli, aquamarine, and other brilliant shades of blue. The several hundred ballpoint pen drawings he made in the 1950s and early 1960s appear to be the seeds from which his later, better-known assemblages and paintings sprang.