Dust, Beersheba 1920

James McBey made this etching, Dust, Beersheba, with brown ink on paper. And what I see is a direct and visceral response to a place. The network of lines in warm shades of brown creates a composition that feels both chaotic and unified. The layering of marks and tones suggests a process of building up the image organically, like the landscape itself accumulating over time. The artist seems to be working at the very edge of representation. Look closely at the lower right corner, where the ink seems to be more densely applied. It’s almost as if you can feel the grit and texture of the earth, the wind whipping around you. The whole thing reminds me of the frenetic energy in some of Joan Mitchell’s paintings, that same sense of a landscape being felt and translated into raw, gestural marks. Art is always just a big conversation anyway, right?