Cliff - Western Way

Andrade is best known for her gridded abstractions that share a strong kinship to Op Art of the 1960s and 70s - her work of the 1950s was the last time she had explored realism to the degree that she does in her seacoast drawings. However, rock formations with their striations and erosion marks offer Andrade a roughly gridded surface, which she emphasizes with high-contrast light and shadow. Abstraction, then, continues to percolate in this carefully composed drawing. The flatly painted slate grey background imbues the work with an otherworldly quality and underscores the fact that her intention here is not solely realism. The work is a smart, modernist study in texture and form, radiating a strange, all-over calm.