Forum 1962

Rudy Pozzatti made this etching called ‘Forum’ sometime in the last century. It’s all about the power of the line and the immediacy of the mark. Look at how Pozzatti scratched and scribbled his way into this depiction of the Roman Forum. The sepia ink is thinly applied, almost like watercolor, but the network of lines is what really gives it structure. See how the architectural details are suggested with the bare minimum of strokes? It’s like he’s saying, ‘Here’s the essence, the bare bones of what I saw.’ That tree on the left – or is it a bush? – is a tangle of frantic energy. It’s the polar opposite of the rigid lines of the building, yet they balance each other out. For me, this piece recalls the drawings of Cy Twombly, with their similar interest in gestural marks and a sense of collapsing the weight of history into a few deft marks. With art, there are no easy answers, just endless possibilities.