Coalyard II 1942

Edward Landon made this screenprint, Coalyard II, at an unknown date. It's all about the build-up of simple, geometric shapes that come together to create a scene. The colour palette is muted but the way they interact makes for something special. The textures achieved through screenprinting give the image a tactile quality. You can imagine the ink being pressed through the mesh, building up layers of colour and form. The shapes aren't perfect, with some areas slightly misregistered, this adds to the overall sense of a hand-made object. Look at how the red block of the building is slightly off-centre, or slightly misaligned from the text that sits on its surface. Think of someone like Stuart Davis, who was interested in the everyday world, but transforming it into something new through abstraction. What Landon has given us is not so much an image of a specific place, but a feeling of what it might be like to be there, in that moment. The piece embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations, which is a good thing!