Divided Oak Tree, No. 2 1958

Curator: Standing before us is Ivon Hitchens' "Divided Oak Tree, No. 2," currently housed in the Tate Collections. Editor: My first thought is about the raw energy! It's almost violently joyful, the way those colours clash and dance. Curator: It's fascinating how Hitchens, born in 1893, pushes at the edges of representation. Look at the sheer physicality of the paint itself. Editor: Yes, that impasto, that thick application of paint, is very striking. It seems almost wasteful, indulgent even – a real luxury of material. You can imagine the effort, the labor, that went into each stroke. Curator: Absolutely, and it's precisely that indulgence, that material richness, that allows us to feel the scene, the weather, in a way that a photograph never could. It’s the tree's essence, not its likeness. Editor: So, not just a tree, but the idea of a tree, filtered through the lens of experience and, of course, a whole lot of paint! Curator: Precisely. It’s a landscape distilled to its emotional core. Editor: It really makes you think about the materials artists choose and what that means. Curator: It does, doesn't it? And how they transform those materials into something that speaks to us on such a deeply personal level.