Greek Landscape I 1960 - 1961

Curator: Michael Ayrton's "Greek Landscape I" presents a stark, almost desolate scene. It's a print, mostly browns and blacks, which gives it a very weighty feel. Editor: Yes, my first impression is the oppressive weight of that heavy, black sky. It feels laden with unspoken narratives, like a landscape witnessing centuries of socio-political unrest. Curator: Ayrton had a real fascination with myth and the Minotaur, so I see this as a reflection of a deeper, perhaps more tortured, psychological space. The landscape becomes a stage for inner dramas. Editor: Absolutely. The fractured forms evoke ruins, suggesting the collapse of dominant narratives. The work prompts questions around identity, power, and the construction of historical memory within landscapes. Curator: I keep wondering what those ochre and black strokes are suggesting, perhaps the very foundations of the landscape being ripped apart and re-imagined, a landscape of the mind. Editor: It leaves me considering how artists engage with inherited histories and re-present landscapes as contested spaces of identity. Curator: It’s heavy work that really sticks with you after you see it. Editor: Indeed, a landscape imbued with the weight of history and the shadow of our collective anxieties.