Untitled 1962

Esteban Vicente made this untitled abstract expressionist drawing using charcoal. Vicente was part of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, a movement that sought to express emotional experience rather than physical reality. Vicente was born in Spain in 1903, moved to Paris, and then New York at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. This work, in blacks, greys, and white, uses the starkness of charcoal to evoke an immediate response, as if to respond to the violence of the war, his own exile from his birth country, and the trauma of displacement. There is an urgency to this piece, the artist seems to be reaching to us through the paper. Consider how the artist balances a lack of clear form with the very real emotional depth. This piece speaks to the pain of the exile experience and offers a poignant meditation on the human condition.