Dimensions: unconfirmed: 510 x 410 mm
Copyright: © The Benjamin Trust | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Welcome. Here we have Anthony Benjamin's abstract print, "Emerald Deeps," currently housed in the Tate Collections. Editor: Immediately, the textural quality strikes me—the way the inks were worked, almost troweled, onto the surface. It feels very tactile, almost geological. Curator: Notice how Benjamin uses distinct horizontal bands of blue and green. The composition evokes a Rothko-esque exploration of color fields and layered meanings. Editor: And those almost imperceptible red dots disrupt the otherwise serene surface. Were these added intentionally, or are they simply artifacts of the printing process? Curator: It's an intriguing question. I think they are deliberate, adding a layer of symbolic tension within the color field. Editor: For me, it's fascinating to imagine the artist in the studio, wrestling with these materials, the physicality of creating these depths of color. Curator: Yes, a testament to the power of color and form, and the artist's intention. Editor: A beautiful exploration of materiality and chance.
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Emerald Deeps is from a set of seven prints made by Anthony Benjamin, in response to a group of poems called Seven Letters, by the Scottish poet WS Graham (1918-86). Benjamin and Graham were friends and had both lived for a time near St Ives in Cornwall. The prints convey a fascination with the power of the sea as an image which is also explored in the poems. The original prints were lost in 1959, but the plates were rediscovered in 1993 and ten sets of prints were produced in 1999. Gallery label, August 2004
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