Walled City 1957

Juvenal Sansò made this etching, Walled City, using delicate lines that remind me of graphite on paper, a medium that invites intimate viewing. I’m picturing Sansò hunched over the plate, working in focused bursts of energy, building up these rugged rock formations. Each line is so purposeful, like he's mapping a landscape not just of physical space but of emotional terrain. I love the way the artist renders the contrast between the dark sky and the reflective water. It's a constant conversation between light and shadow, just as painting is all about addition and subtraction, a constant negotiation of the surface. It reminds me of Piranesi’s etchings of Rome, but with a raw, more personal feel, and it speaks to a long tradition of artists using printmaking to explore architectural space, to build worlds with lines. Sansò is inviting us to wander through it, to reflect, and maybe even get a little lost.