Untitled (Departure) 1942

Editor: Here we have Sid Gotcliffe’s “Untitled (Departure),” created in 1942 using watercolor and coloured pencil. The scene depicts figures waiting at a train station. The muted colors give it a melancholy feel, but the slightly cubist style creates interesting spatial relationships. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Initially, one is drawn to the fracturing of space. Note how Gotcliffe avoids traditional perspective, opting instead for planes of colour to define the architecture of the station. Observe the flattened picture plane, enhanced by the deliberate, almost childlike, quality of line and form. What impact do you think this style has on our reading of the image? Editor: It feels like it’s both everywhere and nowhere at once. The slightly off-kilter perspective stops you from locking in to a definite location, perhaps enhancing the theme of transience? Curator: Precisely. The lack of detail in the figures, reducing them to geometric shapes and blocks of colour, could be seen as depersonalising them. They become archetypes, representing anyone and everyone facing departure. The limited palette also contributes to a subdued mood. The emphasis seems to be more on the formal arrangements rather than specific narrative. Editor: The lack of detail is certainly interesting, and does invite you to fill in the gaps as a viewer. It focuses you on the shapes and how they repeat through the painting, rather than individuals or any story. Curator: Exactly. And have you observed the relationship between the warm hues clustered towards the center and the cool tones dominating the lower register and upper left? Editor: Yes, I noticed the warmer tones draw you in and keep you centered on the people waiting, making that the main focus. Thank you, that formal analysis really clarifies how all of the choices Gotcliffe makes build that feeling of abstracted transience!