Towers of San Gimignano 1932

John Taylor Arms made this print, Towers of San Gimignano, using etching. It's like a drawing, but the lines are bitten into a metal plate with acid, then inked and printed. Think of drawing with acid instead of graphite. Arms built up the image with these incredibly precise, delicate lines to make stone look like stone. He's really thinking about process, how the etching medium can mimic the textures of the architecture. Look at the arch framing the towers – the way he varies the density of the lines, thicker in the shadows and lighter where the light hits. It's almost photographic in its detail. There's a kind of architectural precision to his mark making. Artists like Piranesi also come to mind, artists who are obsessed with the density and depth of the built environment. It's a reminder that art is always in conversation, each artist building on what came before, finding new ways to see and interpret the world.