Angel arises from the most assured chapter of Albert Irvin's seven-decade career, when colour ceased to be a compositional tool and became, entirely, the subject itself. By 2003, Irvin had shed any residual debt to figuration; vivid, gestural planes of hue — bold, warm, kinetic — carry the full weight of emotional meaning, and the title Angel is characteristic of his late practice: not a depiction, but a feeling, a force. The joyous vibrancy and texture of colour here, for Irvin, is rooted in his lifelong dialogue with Turner, de Kooning, and Kline. As the artist declared, his works are "not in any sense depictions of anything — rather than being pictures of the world, they are pictures about it".

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