Clegyr-Boia II (Landscape in Wales) 1936

Graham Sutherland made "Clegyr-Boia II (Landscape in Wales)" using etching on paper. I see sharp, angular forms emerging from a dark field. The lines scratch and bite, as if Sutherland wrestled with the plate, trying to coax an image out of it. I imagine him hunched over the metal, the acid eating away, a constant push and pull between control and chance. I feel for any artist making landscape. It seems to be about trying to capture something elemental, something beyond the surface. See how those spiky shapes jut out, almost aggressive, like the land itself is resisting being tamed or depicted. And then there’s that oval form, bisected by a bold line, like a seed or an egg, full of potential. Sutherland was in conversation with artists like Samuel Palmer, who transformed the English landscape into something visionary. It’s like they’re all trying to tap into some deeper, hidden current. That’s what art does, really – it makes you look, and look again, until you start to see things you never noticed before.