Carlos Alcolea was part of the generation of young artists in the 1960s led by Luis Gordillo (1934) who distanced themselves from non-objective approaches and advocated a return to figuration, gaining fame within the context of the so-called from Madrid. His brightly-coloured painting reflects a thoroughly meditated process clearly dominated by drawing and form.

A self-taught artist, Alcolea arrived at painting through truly unconventional paths and his vast culture is behind the ironic touch he brings to his work. His practice has always been associated with Luis Gordillo and David Hockney (1937), with whom he became acquainted through the cultural circles he frequented. However, his art should not be seen as a continuation of the proposals of those two artists, who were more of starting points for the development of his own personal expression.

La ciega veneciana is one of the most significant examples of his production from the 1980s, his period of maturity as an artist, when he was a regular visitor to Venice. Thanks to the essay on his work written by another artist, Ángel González (1925-2008), we know that the character in this painting is a blind woman who ran an ironmonger’s shop in Venice, where Alcolea used to stop to look at the window display.

Meticulously executed, the painting at hand is an enigmatic and disquieting work that creates a fantastic space through a geometry of forms and a combination of flat colours used by the artist to achieve a sense of depth.

Alcolea made complex paintings that in many cases contain personal references which are quite often difficult to decipher. He created his works by meticulously applying layer after layer of acrylic paint, creating odd atmospheres full of timeless characters inhabiting a world invariably charged with symbolism and irony which the artist created expressly for them.