Vegetation 1963

Juvenal Sansò made this untitled etching, titled Vegetation, using a process of patient mark-making to create an image of organic profusion. The overall effect is less about botanical accuracy, and more about a felt sense of proliferation. The texture of the piece is so rich, it almost feels as though you could reach out and touch the leaves. Look at the way Sansò varies the density of the marks, building up layers of tone to suggest depth and volume. Note how the light catches certain leaves, while others recede into shadow. See how the individual marks combine to create a sense of movement and vitality, as if the vegetation is alive and growing before our very eyes. The image is evocative of natural processes, but also reminds me of the way art can create its own kind of internal logic. Sansò's work bears comparison to that of Yves Tanguy, whose surrealist landscapes also evoke a sense of boundless space and organic form. Like Tanguy, Sansò invites us to lose ourselves in a world of imagination and wonder.