Study for ‘The Gorse Bush’ c. 1957

Curator: This is Peter Coker's 'Study for 'The Gorse Bush',' now held in the Tate Collections. The medium is listed as image, its dimensions roughly 386 by 600 mm. Editor: It has a stark, almost unsettling quality. The dense, dark strokes evoke a feeling of confinement, like being trapped within the thicket. Curator: Coker's known for his intense still lifes and landscapes. Gorse, with its thorny, resilient nature, perhaps became a symbol for postwar resilience, a common theme in British art then. Editor: The thorns themselves could represent defenses, barriers, not just in the physical landscape but also psychological ones. Perhaps reflecting the anxieties of the era? Curator: Precisely. And consider how the sketch-like quality removes any romanticism. It's a raw, almost brutal depiction of nature. Editor: It forces us to confront the less idyllic aspects of the natural world. A powerful statement on persistence and survival, visually and perhaps metaphorically.