Dimensions: support: 1797 x 1737 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Graham Sutherland | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Graham Sutherland’s "Form over River," a painting of considerable size located in the Tate Collections. It's quite evocative, almost dreamlike. What symbols jump out at you? Curator: The recurring spirals! In many cultures, spirals represent growth, evolution, and the journey of the soul. Notice also how Sutherland places biomorphic forms in ambiguous settings. Editor: Ambiguous how? Curator: The river implied in the title? Is it literal, or psychological? The creature itself seems to be in transition, echoing themes of metamorphosis and adaptation. Consider the overall green hue—life, renewal, but also perhaps envy or decay. Editor: So, it’s not just about a river, but about transformation? Curator: Precisely. Symbols aren't fixed; their meaning shifts with context. What do you make of its effect on you now? Editor: I see more than just a form. It's a world of potential meanings, hidden beneath the surface.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-form-over-river-t01726
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This was based on studies made on the banks of Eastern Cleddau, Picton Park, in Pembrokeshire, in the summer of 1971. Sutherland described the making of this picture: 'As with all my other organic forms - especially those deriving from the country here, it was the result of a chance encounter. Always one in a thousand such encounters are meaningful to me or productive, but those which are, have in their structure a movement and an equilibrium which straight away finds a response in my own make up. The colour was used to emphasise the mood of the ambience but only in certain aspects was it the actual colour of the object'. Gallery label, April 1994
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