Dimensions: support: 480 x 382 mm frame (Imperial): 725 x 550 x 25 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Editor: Okay, so this is Alexander Cozens's "A Blot, Based on New Method, Plate 10." It’s this intriguing, inky landscape, or rather, a suggestion of one. It feels almost like a dreamscape, something glimpsed out of the corner of your eye. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's a landscape born from intuition. Cozens was after something deeper than just representation, wasn't he? He believed these 'blots' could unlock our imagination. It’s like finding shapes in clouds, but guiding the clouds himself! The fun is in what *you* bring to it. Do you see a majestic mountain? A forgotten forest? Editor: I think I see both, actually. It’s interesting how he uses such an abstract technique to evoke such specific feelings. Definitely makes you wonder what other hidden landscapes are lurking in unexpected places. Curator: Precisely! And perhaps, within ourselves, too.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cozens-a-blot-based-on-new-method-plate-10-verso-a-clumsier-blot-t08197
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Cozens published a drawing manual called A New Method of Assisting the Invention... of Landscape in 1786, which demonstrated one of his schemes for inventing landscape compositions. He recommended the use of the chance associations which semi-randomly applied 'blots' of ink would produce in the mind to create new compositions. When making a blot, Cozens wrote, 'you must first possess your mind strongly with the subject'. Here Cozens or a pupil has used a large brush loaded with dense black ink, working quickly to lay down the main forms, and using overlapping dabs of ink to complete the image. Gallery label, August 2004