Dawn 1959

Peter Takal made this print called ‘Dawn’ using a monochrome palette with a soft approach to mark making. The piece feels like a memory, or a dream. Look at how the artist uses texture to create depth in the field of flowers in the foreground. The individual marks are quite gestural. It almost looks like a drawing, or something done in drypoint. The hazy effect in the sky is beautifully done, it almost looks like it's been smudged with a cloth. That little chair in the distance seems quite solitary and the field it sits in looks overgrown. There is a sense of something that has been left to grow wild, like a garden that has not been maintained. Takal reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, in the way that he uses very limited means to create a very subtle and affecting piece of work. This piece embraces ambiguity and allows for multiple interpretations, rather than offering fixed meanings.