Very Nice by Rafael Alonso

'Very Nice' inkjet print on paper by Rafael Alonso, 2018. Representing a powerful tropical sun, a circle fills the top two thirds of the print, with a vibrant gradation of colour running from yellow at the top, through the rainbow to blue. The background grades contrastingly from pale orange at the bottom to dark at the top.

Commissioned for the Science Museum exhibition 'The Sun: Living with our Star' in 2018, Alonso’s striking piece evokes the extreme light, heat and colour of a tropical summer. It formed the basis of the marketing campaign for the exhibition, and was the first exhibition poster that the museum commissioned from an artist. Alonso is based in Rio de Janeiro and has long been drawn to the dazzling but distant presence of our nearest star. His work adds an example of South American modernism to the rich series of images in the museum’s art collection that respond to the sun. 'Very Nice' was the successful design from three proposals produced by Alonso for the commission. The other two designs are 2019-364 and 2019-365.