Dimensions: support: 2445 x 1219 mm frame: 2538 x 1324 x 85 mm
Copyright: © Tate | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Peter Lanyon's "Porthleven," a large canvas full of muted blues and greys. I'm struck by how the paint seems almost scrubbed into the surface. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Lanyon's process is key. Consider the industrial landscape of Cornwall, the mining, the fishing. He's not just depicting Porthleven; he's embodying the labor, the materiality of that place, using oil paint to mimic the textures of the harbor. Notice how the canvas itself becomes almost like a weathered map, charting not just geography but the means of production that shaped it. Editor: So, it's less about a picturesque view and more about the physical and social forces at play? Curator: Precisely. It's about understanding how the work is made and what materials were used to explore the intersection of art and industry. Editor: That gives me a lot to think about. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure, it's a great example of process defining the artwork.
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This work exemplifies Lanyon’s idea of the ‘experiential landscape’, which involved approaching a place from different positions and combining these views with allusions to geology, history, culture and myth. Here he depicts the fishing port of Porthleven from several perspectives, revealing its two harbours and clock tower. Lanyon later identified a human presence in the work, reading the shape on the left as a fisherman with lamp and his wife wrapped in a shawl on the right. Influenced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and his theories of the unconscious, the artist saw these as figures embodying the cultural identity of his home. Gallery label, May 2007
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