Le Port, St.-Tropez 1929 - 1932

Editor: This etching, "Le Port, St.-Tropez" by André Dunoyer de Segonzac, created between 1929 and 1932, has a kind of restless energy to it. The lines are so frantic, capturing a harbor scene but almost blurring into abstraction. What symbols or hidden meanings do you see in this composition? Curator: The frantic energy, as you call it, isn't chaotic. Segonzac is not just capturing a visual scene but imbuing it with symbolic weight, using a modernist vocabulary. Consider the masts of the boats – they are more than structural; they're like standing witnesses. What might a forest of masts signify in the cultural memory of a port like St. Tropez? Editor: Maybe the connection to the larger world, to voyages, to trade… to history itself? The barrels and working figures too—they feel like the foundation of the port’s very existence. Curator: Precisely. And what of the etching medium itself? The very act of incising the plate becomes a symbol of labour, echoing the physical toil represented in the scene. These repeated lines speak to me of shared experience and memory. Do you feel a certain continuity being evoked, a chain reaction that speaks of heritage? Editor: I hadn’t thought about it that way, but now I do! The scratchy lines create a tangible link between past and present. Like we are seeing generations of people who have also been a part of this cultural legacy. Curator: Yes, Segonzac taps into that. It's a modernist piece, absolutely, but it also understands how deeply we are tied to the narratives and visual symbols that have shaped our world. Perhaps this modern work functions like an ancient icon. Editor: I like that! It really encourages a deeper consideration beyond just the surface level, showing the symbolic meaning intertwined within what could easily be dismissed as *just* a harbour drawing.